Solberg loses ground behind Loeb

Petter Solberg (Citroen C4 WRC), who will have had a very solid season at the wheel of the world champion car, is not expected to win the Rally of Great Britain. However, after Japan, the Norwegian has never been so close to returning to success. Located less than five seconds from Sébastien Loeb (Citroën C4 WRC) at the start of the day, he could aim for victory.

But the first loop of two specials did not please him, since he finished 6?7 behind Loeb: “ It?s really slippery and it attacks hard! “, he then replied. For his part, the Frenchman admitted that the long (29,99 km) Resolfen special went well: “ I hesitated in my riding but everything went well and I continue to fight. The grip was not that bad but it remained variable. »

In SS18, the Margam Park special (8,08 km), Petter Solberg added errors to his lack of pace compared to the Frenchman. “ I hit a stone and then got a puncture “, explained the Norwegian. “ I'm trying, that's all I can say, but the conditions are really bad. The flyhalf seems to be the best place, but that's how it is. It is not finished yet. I'm going to keep the pressure on him. »

A little further on, the "fight" for third place logically turns to the advantage of Jari-Matti Latvala (Ford Focus WRC), who is racing for the place of vice-World Champion. The Finn is only three seconds behind his compatriot and teammate, Mikko Hirvonen (Ford Focus WRC).