Petter Solberg endured a weekend to forget at the first ever World RX of Latvia, however he was still full of praise for the event itself, despite losing ground on the Drivers Championship.
After finishing in fifth place overall in Q1, the Norwegian driver was penalised in his Q2 race after contact with his title rival Mattias Ekstrom where the stewards made the decision to disqualify Solberg which left him in twenty-third place overall in Q2 itself and twenty-second overall after the first days racing.
More issues would hold up his progress in Q3 as Solberg’s PSRX Citroen suffered a misting windscreen that slowed him up and left him in twenty-first position. Q4 would seal a difficult weekend of work as the 2003 WRC Champion finished in nineteenth place overall.
Solberg entered the weekend ten points behind Ekstrom in the Drivers Championship, however he now lies in third place overall, thirty-four points off the lead and seven points behind Volkswagen RX Sweden driver Johan Kristoffersson, and Solberg was honest about his performance over the weekend.
“It goes without saying, this result was not what we wanted from our first ever race in Latvia,” said Solberg. “But we move on from this and look forward to the next round in Germany.”
The Norwegian was full of praise though for the organisers of the event.
“What I think it’s so important to say and to talk about here is the effort which has gone into making World RX of Latvia, in my opinion, one of the best rounds of the championship ever. From the moment we arrived here in Latvia, everything has been perfect from an organisational point of view. The track is one of the best we have raced on and it’s been really fantastic to see what can be achieved when you have a team of really committed people behind an event.”
Solberg will come out fighting at the penultimate round of the 2016 FIA World Rallycross Championship, the World RX of Germany, which takes place on 14th – 16th October.
