Petter Solberg has his sights set on fighting for a place on the Wales Rally GB podium after finishing a difficult opening leg of the WRC season finale in fourth place.
Rain, fog and high winds made the six stages that made up day one treacherous for the competing crews, with the second run through Rheola in particular seeing sizeable gaps on the stage times as drivers battled poor visibility in the fading light.
However, Solberg – a winner on numerous occasions in the Welsh forests – was able to come through unscathed to end the leg just over 30 second behind champion elect
Sebastien Loeb in the fight for third place, with his only moment of concern coming on the first stage of the morning when he suffered a high-speed spin on SS1.
“I've never seen Rally GB conditions like this before,” ‘Hollywood' reflected at the end of the day. “Today has been very, very stressful, but quite good also. It's been good fun as the surface is so slippery. It is good we are in fourth, but I hope we can climb from there.
“We will try everything we can here to improve on our position, so we will see tomorrow how we go. It's going to be a tough rally and a long rally so I am not giving up for a podium.”
Team-mate
Chris Atkinson also overnights inside the points although he was only able to manage seventh place after losing time on the final stages as his Impreza fogged up.
“We struggled with the screen which kept fogging up in the last two stages, and it was always on my side so I couldn't see much,” he said. “I was driving with my head tilted, trying to see round the side. I drove the last stage with my window down which helped, but there was mud coming in. The conditions out there today have just been unreal –torrential rain, full fog, just no visibility. You need absolute confidence in the car, and you can see a few people having problems today.”
