Q&A with Petter Solberg

Petter Solberg took second place in last weekend’s Rally de Espana.

Here is what he had to say during the post-race press conference:

Petter, the rally didn’t get off to the best of starts on the opening stage but you have come through to seal second position after a great battle with Sordo – a tough weekend out there?

“I don’t want to talk about it. It happened and that’s it. I lost 20 seconds, that’s a long time. It can happen. I won the stage after and it went very well. It’s so small details that have to come together. It was a small mistake.”

Were there any concerns about Sordo today – he took almost seven seconds out of you this morning?

“It’s been really good fun, Sordo is a proper sportsman. It’s been great fun and I’m very happy to beat him in his home rally. It’s almost like a victory; we have one more man to beat. I want to fight, that’s why we’re here. It’s been good fun. It’s close, but I felt I had good control.”

How confident were you. Did you think: he can’t get me?

“I don’t want to bull***t. He took some time, but I had good control. I was trying to control the tyres. I had the most to lose, he had nothing to lose. I just waited for the split, it was zero, zero and then I lost two [splits] and I didn’t get one for ages. Then it was ‘plus five’, and so I had to push again and got it down to 4.9s at the finish. It’s been exciting and a proper fight.”

And a great result for the whole team?

“Now it can be very interesting for the last rally. There’s me, Sordo and Latvala and Ogier who should be a bit careful because you can lose the second place in the Championship.”

And what about Loeb?

“No we don’t count him now. He does his own thing. It will be a big fight.”