Final results Rally Norway 2009

A smiling and relieved Petter Solberg drove into sixth place overall in Rally Norway this afternoon. Petter Solberg and his World Rally Team are really happy scoring three points in the Drivers Championship in its debut rally.

- I am very happy about the sixth place. I mean, 4 weeks ago I had no car and no team, and look at us now. I am so proud of everybody in the team that has been working flat out for the past weeks, and also my friends and family. Without them none of this would be possible.

Petter and Phil started the rally with a fantastic stage win in Oslo Thursday evening, with thousands of spectators watching and cheering for them. On Friday they lost some time due to the team owner’s decision regarding a spare tyre. – I took only one spare tyre with me in the car, just to save some weight. Not a very good decision, changing only one tyre caused me problems with the grip due to unbalance – my decision and my fault! On Saturday they had to stop in a stage because of an overheated engine. Phil had to get out the car and remove a piece of kevlar that was blocking the air. Sunday’s two final stages turned out to be quite exciting due to a damaged clutch. – Honestly, I didn’t really think we would make it to the finish, but we did and we also managed to keep our 6th.

- I think we did a good job this weekend. We were really fast on some splits, and they are driving cars that should go much faster. Now we have to do some evaluation and make some plans for the next rallies. Cyprus will be quite a challenge, and I will not settle for 6th.

Overall classification Rally Norway 2009

1. Sebastien Loeb, Citroen
2. Mikko Hirvonen, Ford +9,8
3. Jari Matti Latvala, Ford +1.21,8
4. Henning Solberg, Ford +3.33,5
5. Dani Sordo, Citroen +3.52,0
6. Petter, Citroen +6.25,4
7. Matthew Wilson, Ford +6.35,6
8. Urmo Aava, Ford +6.49,1

Rally Norway, day 2

Another thrilling day of Rally Norway is over, and Petter is holding 6th position in the overall classification. Today Petter and Phil had to tackle 120kms and 8 stages trough beautiful Norwegian scenery. But, the day has also been challenging for the guys. On the first stage after the midday service, Petter had to stop on the stage with an overheated engine. Phil jumped out to remove the snow from the front that they thought caused the heating, but it was caused by a small piece of kevlar – in the wrong place. Later, they had to try to repair and oil leak from the gearbox on the roadsection.

Sebastien Loeb is leading the rally going into day 3, but Hirvonen is close, only 15 seconds behind in second place. Henning is fourth.

Rally Norway continues with 6 more stages Sunday.

Overall classification day 2
1. Loeb, Citroen
2. Hirvonen, Ford +15,0
3. Latvala, Ford +43,2
4. Henning Solberg, Ford +2.41,3
5. Sordo, Citroen +2.53,3
6. Petter, Citroen +4.50,9
7. Wilson, Ford +4.53,2
8. Aava, Ford +5.18,5