Major drama in the WRC2 – Solberg’s dream of a title close to becoming reality

Solberg arrived at the Chile round carrying a fine victory from the previous rally in Paraguay. A win in Chile as well would already be enough to secure the Swede the title.

The championship battle took a major turn on Friday, when both French Citroën driver Yohan Rossel and Briton Gus Greensmith were forced to retire due to technical issues. For Rossel, Chile is his final points-scoring event, and after the retirement he can no longer climb to a meaningful result. Greensmith still has points rallies left, but his season has been so lacklustre that, sitting fifth in the standings, the Briton is no longer a contender for the title.

After early difficulties, Solberg moved into the lead of his class with a 10.4-second advantage over Nikolay Gryazin, who competes under the Bulgarian flag.

“When you start first among the cars in our class, it’s really slippery. That was especially the case in the afternoon, which was worse than the morning loop. In general, it was difficult to make differences today because everyone knows the stages so well,” Solberg summarised.

“The stages on Saturday and Sunday suit both me and the car better. But we’ll have to see what happens with the Hankook tyres. We also have very few tyres to use. The weather could also be tricky.”

The championship would almost certainly seal Solberg’s seat in Toyota’s WRC team for next season. Driving Toyota’s Rally2 car, Solberg has already taken class wins this year in Paraguay, his home event in Sweden, as well as in Portugal and Greece. In Estonia’s WRC round, Solberg sensationally claimed overall victory on his debut in Toyota’s Rally1 car.

In third place in the WRC2 category in Chile after the opening day is Emil Lindholm, already 37.3 seconds adrift of the leader.

“What a mixed day. The first stage of the morning loop was really slippery and at times wet, but after that the roads dried visibly. Even though we lost quite a bit on the final stage of the morning loop, we still reached mid-day service in second place in our class,” Lindholm explained.

“I spun on the first stage of the afternoon loop, and on the day’s final stage the throttle occasionally stuck, so I had to drive carefully to the finish with it. Still, third place. It wasn’t a bad start, and the gap to the lead isn’t impossible.”

WRC2 classification in Rally Chile after SS6/16: