Solberg 2nd after day one in Sardinia

The first leg of Rally Italia Sardinia was a bit up and down for Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson.

The PSWRT crew started the day in the best way possible, setting the fastest time on the opening stage and taking the lead. But disappointment awaited them on the next stage: a turbo boost pipe problem cost them 40 seconds and dropped them down to eighth position.

They managed to fix the problem and climbed back up the order. Joint fastest with the factory Citroëns DS3 WRC on SS3, they ended the morning loop in 6th place.

A solid run in the afternoon saw them gain more positions and they finished the day in 2nd position overall, 33 seconds adrift of the leader Loeb. Solberg was quite satisfied of the outcome of day one and promised to push hard tomorrow.

“I’m happy with my position right now”, he said. “I lost almost 40 seconds on the loose turbo pipe problem this morning, so second now is good enough. I want to win this event, and will continue to push more tomorrow. Despite the problem we had on the second stage, it has been quite fun today. The car works well.”