Del Barrio: strong Saturday night is vital

Dani Sordo’s co-driver Carlos del Barrio has told World Rally Radio that Petter Solberg’s progress on the opening two stages of day four of Rallye Monte-Carlo is a cause of real concern for the MINI duo.

Solberg, in a works Ford Fiesta, began the penultimate day of the World Rally Championship qualifier more than one minute behind his Spanish rival. However, the Norwegian has closed to within 39.9s of Sordo with two stages of day four remaining.

“Petter is going really fast now so we are little worried, we didn’t expect to lose so much time to him,” del Barrio told World Rally Radio. “We need to have two good night stages now to have a relaxed Power Stage tomorrow.”

The 5.16-kilometre Power Stage, scheduled for Sunday morning, provides the final competitive test for the crews. Despite the short nature of the course, del Barrio said he and Sordo would not be taking anything for granted.

“The Power Stage is very twisty, very demanding for the tyres and very easy to have a puncture,” he said. “We would prefer to have a big gap [over Solberg] for this stage.”