Petter Solberg extended his lead in this year’s FIA World Rallycross Championship with his third win of the season, dominating the World RX of France final at Lohéac, France today (Sunday).
Solberg, who made more World RX history today by becoming the first driver to win three rounds of the series, said: “This feels just incredible! I am tired, exhausted and so sweaty – it was hot at work today! This has been a very tough weekend, one of my hardest and most nervous ever in my career. It wasn’t just the warm weather or the driving which made it tough, it was the atmosphere at the race; with tens of thousands of spectators all wanting your autograph and a picture, the emotion is incredible. It’s also a really big and quite tiring challenge.
“But you know me, I would never ever complain about this – I love these people, they are part of my life and part of my sport.
“We started yesterday without a perfect car, but my mechanics did a lot of changes overnight. As usual, these guys were the best around and didn’t switch off the lights in the workshop until one in the morning. But by then, they had transformed the car for me. Today, I had speed, traction and stability in the semi-finals. Not only did that give me confidence, it also gave me performance and the chance to save our tyres. Ultimately, it gave me the chance to dominate the final from pole position. The final was quite straightforward for me, but the celebrations are never straightforward, I am so happy! I came close to winning here last year, so to finish the job is perfect. It was also a good way for me to finish with a new lap record, that one was for the team - my mechanics helped me so much again. I couldn’t have done this without them.
“My strategy now is to continue being clever and collect world championship-winning points at each race. There’s still a long way to go – and a 28-point lead [over Reinis Nitiss) isn’t much if we should experience any kind of problem. But for now, I will enjoy the moment of another win and the enjoyment of extending my World RX lead.”
Tonight’s a double celebration for the PSRX team in France. Petter’s son Oliver might not be with the team in Lohéac, but he’s very much in their thoughts having won the Swedish Crosskart Championship yesterday (Saturday).
“Knowing that Oliver had won the championship was such an incredible motivation for me at my race today,” said Petter. “I’m sure this will be the first of many for him and hopefully there will be more titles for PSRX to celebrate this year!”
Final result:
1 Petter Solberg 3m48.241s
2 Reinis Nitiss 3m49.690s
3 Timmy Hansen 3m49.854s
4 Ken Block 3m50.991s
5 Pontus Tidemand 4m04.793s
6 Timur Timerzyanov N/A
Championship positions:
1 Petter Solberg 182pts
2 Reinis Nitiss 157pts
3 Toomas Heikkinen 147pts
4 Andreas Bakkerud 126pts
5 Anton Marklund 124pts
6 Timmy Hansen 118pts
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