Solberg scores 10 hard-fought points in Germany

Petter Solberg finished fifth and scored 10 hard-fought points on Rally Germany this weekend.

The Norwegian overcame two punctures and a big time loss on the opening leg of the event to make it back into the points and leave Trier with a nice points haul.

He could also be very satisfied with his pace and his five stage wins – including one on the 2nd pass on the mammoth Panzerplatte special stage ( a win he dedicated to his former co-driver Phil Mills with whom he had a crash on this stage in 2004).

“It has been an incredible rally”, said Solberg. “It’s just too bad that we lost so much time on Friday with the punctures. But the stage win on Panzeplatte Saturday feels so good, as well as the two stage wins we had today. The car works extremely well, and has been perfect. Even though I must admit the clutch gave us some excitement today. But we made it all the way in to Parc Fermé before it gave up, and that gave us 10 important points in the Championship.”

“Rally Germany has been a very tough rally”, added co-driver Chris Patterson. “At first it didn’t really go our way at all, but we did well on the second day and I am very happy with the performance on the Panzerplatte stage. It’s a great feeling to watch the splits coming in, and it is -3, -5, -8 towards Loeb. Day 3 started out well, but then the clutch went, and at one point we didn’t think we could make it – but we did!”

Petter Solberg is still fourth in the World Rally Championship, on 100 points.

Next event is Rally Japan, in Sapporo, 10 – 12 of September 2010.