Solberg dominated the event, securing his third consecutive class win in Rally Sweden. Last season, he narrowly missed out on the WRC2 title to Sami Pajari in a thrilling battle.
Both Solberg and Pajari claimed three wins and two second-place finishes during 2024. In the end, the championship was decided by just three points in the Finn’s favour, as Solberg’s fourth place in Chile was his weakest result, while Pajari’s worst score came from a third-place finish in Latvia.
The 23-year-old believes that one of the key moments in last year’s title fight happened in Portugal in May. Solberg was leading his class but rolled his car on Saturday morning.
“I feel it was a very good year last year. Maybe a mistake in Portugal last year was costly, but that was the same for everybody. But it looked like that,” Solberg told RallyJournal.com after Rally Sweden.
“I think I don’t want to change too much. I just want to try to do the same as last year and a little bit more luck. It should be okay. I just try to have a consistent clean year.”
For this season, Solberg switched from Skoda to Toyota’s Rally2 car, which is run by the Finnish Printsport team. His win in Sweden provided a huge confidence boost, as there are always risks when changing cars. However, it now seems that the decision was the right one, and Solberg has adapted quickly to Toyota’s challenger.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself to in preparation with the car and with the team to be on the level I wanted to be before this weekend,” Solberg reflected.
“I knew if we managed to reach this level, the chances to win straight away would be quite good. So that was the goal and the plan.”
Oliver Solberg will next compete for WRC2 points at Safari Rally Kenya in late March.
