Petter Solberg has announced he will be racing for the Citroen Junior team in the season-ending Rally GB having previously revealed plans that he had secured a Citroen C4 for the final two WRC rounds but would be racing them under the Petter Solberg World Rally Team banner.
In a decision late last week he accepted an invitation from Citroen to ‘upgrade’ his privateer entry to one with the Citroen Junior Team, with Solberg and Junior team regular Sebastien Ogier registered to score point for the team in Wales.
The move will see any points scored by Solberg in Rally GB count towards Citroens championship hopes.
“Now I will definitely be fighting for victory in GB,” Solberg told the official WRC website, wrc.com. “Citroen spoke to me last week and offered to help with my entry costs, and that’s how it happened. I’m driving for the Junior team but hey, I’m only 34 and a lot of people say I look 29, so that feels okay to me.”
Solberg has yet to confirm his full time plans for 2010 but has said that he’s not bothered about upsetting Ford by taking the Citroen Junior Role.
“I will be driving my own rally and I’m going to be pushing like hell to win it,” he said. “If I do well maybe it could be bad for Ford, I don’t know, but I have to take this chance to prove what I can do. Driving for Citroen in GB doesn’t mean I’ve chosen them over Ford for next year. Nothing is decided yet and anything is possible.
“I didn’t even have as much time as I wanted when I was choosing the C4 or Focus for Spain or GB, so there’s a lot to be done before I know what’s happening in 2010.”