Petter Solberg: “Today has been very, very stressful, but quite good also”

Subaru

Dec 01, 2007

The Welsh winter brought some extremely difficult conditions. Fog limited visibility to as little as 10 metres in the morning, before the afternoon brought heavy rain and strong winds to make the routes increasingly treacherous. The muddy tracks that wound through the forests of the Brecon Beacons became more cut-up and rougher with the afternoon’s second passes, which, coupled with the near-horizontal rain, made them amongst the trickiest of the season.

Petter Solberg and Phil Mills were very lucky to escape unscathed from a high-speed spin on SS1. After recovering, the duo who have had great success here in past years, completed a largely trouble free day. Like many drivers Solberg reported difficulties with windscreen mist on the latter stages, but on the final test he moved up a place into fourth overall.

Celebrating his 28th birthday, Chris Atkinson and co-driver Stephane Prevot completed the first two stages without problem, despite being caught in dense fog on SS2. They experienced a high-speed moment of their own on the final stage of the morning (SS3) which saw the duo almost completely sideways in sixth gear, but after making some changes in the midday service, left the service park more comfortable with the balance of their Impreza. Stages five and six brought problems with the heated screen on Chris’ car however, which steamed up and further reduced his visibility, losing him almost two minutes and dropping him to seventh, just one second behind sixth.

Xevi Pons and Xavier Amigo were also caught out by a spin on stage two, and experienced oversteer for the morning’s loop that meant they lacked the confidence required to push hard along the worsening routes. A similar change in service improved the car’s stability – a critical element on such twisty, narrow and treacherous roads and with such bad weather. On the final stages Pons’ car suffered from the same demisting problem as Atkinson and Solberg’s, but he kept out of trouble to return to service ninth overall.

Team quotes

Subaru World Rally Team Managing Director, Richard Taylor: “All our drivers started this difficult event at a steady pace, as planned. Every competitor has experienced horrendous weather conditions on the stages, and with two days to go we are happy to see Petter in fourth place with Chris and Xevi also in the top ten.”

Car number 7

Petter Solberg: “I’ve never seen Rally GB conditions like this before. Today has been very, very stressful, but quite good also. It’s been good fun as the surface is so slippery. It is good we are in fourth, but I hope we can climb from there. We will try everything we can here to improve on our position, so we will see tomorrow how we go. It’s going to be a tough rally and a long rally so I am not giving up for a podium.”

Car number 8

Chris Atkinson: “We struggled with the screen which kept fogging up in the last two stages, and it was always on my side so I couldn’t see much. I was driving with my head tilted, trying to see round the side. I drove the last stage with my window down which helped, but there was mud coming in. The conditions out there today have just been unreal –torrential rain, full fog, just no visibility. You need absolute confidence in the car, and you can see a few people having problems today.”

Car number 17

Xevi Pons: “The screen was just completely misty for the last three stages, and I just didn’t see anything, it’s incredible. And also the last stage, it was very foggy so it was very difficult. For me, it’s my first time in these conditions, but okay, I have arrived here at the end of the day. This is important. Tomorrow I think will be better if the screen is ok, as that is more important than the conditions so I am looking forward to it.”