Solberg: stage one dust worst ever

Petter Solberg said the hanging dust clouds that coated the opening stage of RallyRACC-Rally de Espana this morning produced the worst conditions he’d ever experienced in the world championship.

The 2003 title winner tore the front-left wheel off his Citroen DS3 WRC when he struck a drainage culvert on a left-hand bend approximately 16 kilometres into the stage. The Norwegian privateer said he simply couldn’t see where he was going.

“It was unbelievable dusty, I’ve never experienced anything like it,” Solberg told Wrc.com. “You could not see and it got worse and worse for everybody behind. I couldn’t see two centimetres away. Ken Block hit the same thing, so did [Ott] Tanak. I’m very disappointed because all of my sponsors are here this weekend.”

Solberg praised a group of spectators who positioned a rock in front of the culvert to prevent other drivers from hitting it.

“I guarantee 30 cars would have retired if they had not put that rock there, they did a very good job,” said Solberg.

Solberg’s Citroen suffered a broken front-left hub in the impact. He has yet to decide whether or not he will restart on Saturday.

“Maybe I put all the budget for Rally GB,” said Solberg. “I don’t know yet for tomorrow. I will make a decision with Benoit [Nogier, the boss of Citroen Racing Technologies] later.”