[Auto] Solberg promises more after impressive Arctic debut

[SougarLord]

 

The 19-year-old Hyundai Motorsport driver made an exceptional debut at the highest level at last week's Arctic Rally Finland Powered by CapitalBox. He led his i20 to seventh overall after being in the top five times in six of the 10 stages of the event.

 

The son of the 2003 world champion, Petter, admitted that understanding and utilizing the downforce of the current generation of World Rally Cars had been as difficult as expected.

 

"Honestly, I'm very, very happy with what we did last week," says Solberg. "The times were really good, but I know there is more to come. I have only taken a small step to understand what the Hyundai i20 WRC can do.

 

"The level of aerodynamic grip is just unreal. In some corners, when turning the car, you hardly believe that it sticks to the ground, but it does. It is the most fantastic feeling and something that you do not get with normal cars."

 

"I knew aerodynamics was going to be very important and coming to a test as fast as this was like going straight into the deep end. But it was a fantastic starting point."

 

Solberg impressed the spectators with the fourth fastest time already in the second stage. It could have been before.

"We got stuck at the start of the first stage," he says. "I tried really hard for a perfect start and it stuck. Then I stopped a bit on the snowbank later in the stage. It was not at all dramatic, it was in a very slow zone." The team calculated that the car was stopped for 18 seconds.

 

Solberg was going to finish sixth, but a spin in the last stage, the Wolf Power Stage relegated him behind Takamoto Katsuta. The difference between the two was 1.2 seconds at the finish.

 

"I know it's crazy to talk about this, but I was very desperate to try and fight Sébastien [Ogier] on this stage and did a spin. I was a little frustrated because I had made a little mistake in a corner just before, but the spin didn't. it was due to this.

 

"Sébastien is a perfectionist and that's what I want to do. He's a guy I've watched a lot, he's a hero to me and racing against him has been a very strange feeling. Like Ogier, I want every corner to be perfect."

 

Solberg's next mission will be another test drive with Hyundai's new i20 N Rally2.