Solberg took his home country’s World Championship round in the WRC2 class in a dominant manner and grabbed a full pot from his first point race of the season. In total, the young driver recorded the fastest time in his class on 11 of the 18 stages.
In the WRC2 class, drivers can nominate seven WRC rallies as their point-scoring events, of which the best six results are counted towards the final points. Nothing prevents driving in each of the season’s 13 World Championship rallies, but there is a limited number of point-scoring events.
Last season, Solberg lost his chance at the championship in the WRC2 class by poorly choosing his point-scoring events. For example, he celebrated class victory in the Rally Finland and was second in Croatia, Portugal, and Kenya, but none of these rallies were point-scoring events for Solberg.
Instead, Solberg experienced three retirements in the point-scoring events he chose, so the championship remained a distant dream.
“I could have chosen the rallies where I scored points a bit more cleverly. We were in a good fight but with a bit more luck and a bit more strategic choosing we would have had a good chance (of claiming the title),” Solberg says on the WRC’s website.
“I need to learn a bit more and choose the rallies more strategically and play the game a bit more like the others do. To win WRC2 is the key.”
With Andreas Mikkelsen moving to Hyundai’s factory team as a part-time driver this season, Solberg is Skoda’s official driver in the WRC2 class. Based on his performance in the Sweden World Rally at least, Solberg has learned the tricks of his Fabia RS Rally2 car even better.
“The car has been working well and I found a very good rhythm through the whole (Rally Sweden) weekend. The feeling has been great, especially now for the first time with Škoda Motorsport behind me,” Solberg enthuses.
Solberg’s season continues at the end of March with the Kenyan World Championship round, but the man has not yet chosen whether he will drive for points in Africa or not.
