Defending WRC champion and Subaru star Petter Solberg wants to jump start his season by breaking’s Peugeot’s four-year stranglehold on the Swedish Rally this weekend.
Defending WRC champion and Subaru star Petter Solberg wants to jump start his season by breaking’s Peugeot’s four-year stranglehold on the Swedish Rally this weekend.
However, Norwegian Solberg and his Finnish team-mate, Mikko Hirvonen, will hope that at least one trend continues – the rally has never been won by a non-Scandinavian!
The Karlstad-based event will get underway on Friday and Subaru expects that its Pirelli tyres will be better suited to the snowy conditions of the Swedish event, especially so after both Impreza WRCs had a disappointing Monte Carlo Rally.
“This is the closest event to my home country,” said Solberg. “There’s going to be a hell of a lot of Norwegians there. It will be an interesting event. We have an improved tyre for this rally.
“The test went well and I’ve worked out why I didn’t do so well in Sweden last year,” he added.
Subaru team principal David Lapworth added: “Swedes and Finns have traditionally dominated this event, and we have two Scandinavian drivers that are very talented on this type of surface.”
“There are currently full snow conditions in Karlstad and we know the Pirelli tyres are very strong in those,” he added.
Historically speaking though, Hirvonen is more likely to snatch Swedish victory. Solberg may be Scandinavian, but no Norwegian has ever won the event. Nor has a non-Scandinavian co-pilot shared in the spoils, and Solberg’s co-driver Phil Mills is Welsh, reported on Tuesday.
