Petter eyes third in this year’s championship

Petter Solberg says he is dreaming of a top three finish in this year’s FIA World Championship for drivers’.

The Norwegian is currently fourth in the standings, despite missing the opening round as he rushed to put together his own team following Subaru’s withdrawal at the end of last season.

Petter was crowned World Rally Champion in 2003 and was runner-up in 2004 and 2005. But his three most recent seasons at Subaru were disappointing - placed sixth in 2006 and 2008 and fifth in 2007.

Now, after some solid points scoring performance in his 2005-spec Citroen Xsara WRC - including a third in Cyprus - Solberg reckons he has the potential to finish the season ahead of a manufacturer driver.

“My first dream is to be in a proper factory team again - that’s the main thing - but if that’s not possible just now I have this other dream to get my team together and fight for third in the drivers’ championship,” Solberg told wrc.com.

Solberg was comfortably the quickest independent driver for much of the most recent round in Portugal, and feels the battle for third is where he should be on every rally.

“We had a lot of small problems in Portugal and we lost a lot of time there but even so we weren’t a massive amount of time behind Sordo. It should be impossible for me to catch factory team drivers but I’m going to try anyway,” he said.

After battling two viruses in the last four weeks, Petter says he is feeling better ahead of the forthcoming Rally Argentina. But with his car already down on power compared to his manufacturer team rivals, he is counting on the technical assistance of Citroen Sport and some miserable weather to help him this week.

“The engine is all down to Citroen, so a lot depends on how much help I get from them to adjust it to suit the high altitude stages,” explained Petter. “It’s quite a fast rally, so I’m also hoping for some mud, rain, fog, or anything to keep the average speed down. A fight for third is my goal as soon as I’m on a rally. If I can’t do that there’s no point in driving.”