Petter confident despite Thursday dramas

Petter Solberg believes his contact with a kerb on the first run through the Great Orme stage on Friday afternoon hasn’t affected his chances of winning Wales Rally GB, the 2011 world championship decider.

The Norwegian privateer slid wide on a left-hand corner and took the right-rear tyre off its rim but miraculously avoided a puncture. However, the contact also bent the rear suspension link, which caused a considerable amount of understeer on left-hand corners thereafter.

Solberg also felt his road position hampered his pace on the Clocaenog test, which was run in full darkness by the time he and co-driver Chris Patterson arrived at the startline.

“I’m quite happy with my start but I must say I am missing a little bit of testing,” said the 2003 world champion. “We did a small test before the start but I need to test more, to get the feeling with the car in these conditions. The problem is I don’t have any choice [because of my budget problems].”

Solberg said he’d lost ground on Clocaenog due to the conditions. “The grip is changing so much and it was completely in the dark for me but for [Sebastien] Loeb it was light. It got a little bit foggy also.”