Solberg still aiming high

Petter Solberg is convinced he has the pace to win a round of the World Rally Championship before the end of this season.

The Norwegian took a great deal of confidence from the recent Rallye Deutschland, where he finished fifth, but was regularly the fastest of the Citroen C4 WRCs. Solberg admitted he came close to withdrawing from the Trier-based event after a troubled opening day.

“I’m glad I didn’t,” said Solberg in the wake of the ninth round of the World Rally Championship. “It was frustrating when we had the problems, but the key was to get back into the event and fight.”

Solberg’s decision to do just that paid dividends, keeping him in touch with the fight for a podium result in the end of year standings. Mathematically, Solberg can still win this year’s World Rally Championship, but second or third is what he’s realistically aiming for.

“The points we got in Germany kept us in the fight,” he said. “And now we have to move on. I set the most number of fastest times behind [Sebastien] Loeb in Germany, which shows what we’re capable of. I think we have the speed to win on any of the rounds coming, if we could just get some better luck. We had the problem with the [tyre] valve on the first loop of stages in Germany, that was really unlucky, but then we went off on the final stage of the day and that was my fault.”

Solberg wouldn’t single out any of the four remaining rallies as one he’s targeting in particular, saying: “I like them all. Obviously, France is new, but apart from that I can go well in Spain, Japan or Britain.”

Britain is the event where he has his best record, taking four straight wins on the Cardiff-based event from 2002 until 2005.