SS11: Solberg fastest on Sunday’s opener

Citroen privateer Petter Solberg was the fastest driver through Sunday’s opening test in Rally Bulgaria, narrowing the gap on second-placed Dani Sordo to just 3.8 seconds with three stages of the rally to go.

Sordo was Solberg’s closest rival through the 29.53km Muhovo test, with another Citroen C4 WRC driver, Sebastien Ogier, rounding off the top three times. Rally leader Sebastien Loeb was fourth quickest to remain comfortably out front.

After Saturday morning’s rain and fog, competitors left the Service Park under clear skies today and in a warmer temperature of 21 degrees Celsius.

The dry conditions made tyre choices straightforward, with all but one of the WRC drivers opting for Pirelli’s hard compound PZero tyres. The exception was Ford driver Jari-Matti Latvala, who ran the soft-compound option to test a different set-up on his Focus RS WRC.