WRC
Solberg: Small details cost Canarias victory chance
Oliver Solberg says his Rally Islas Canarias pace gives him plenty to take forward despite a late crash ending his bid for victory.
The 24-year-old had pushed Sébastien Ogier throughout the weekend and started the final day just 3.8sec behind his Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate. That gap was down to 2.2sec after the opening two stages on Sunday before Solberg went off on SS17 Ingenio - Valsequillo 2, leaving his GR Yaris Rally1 too damaged to continue.
Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson were unharmed, but the retirement denied them the chance to take their fight with Ogier to the Wolf Power Stage.
“The flow in the stage and the speed was good, but I wasn’t really over-pushing either,” Solberg explained. “I think I was six-tenths off Ogier on that split.
“It was this corner with a jump in it. In the morning, obviously, we were much slower, so I didn’t really jump much and I didn’t expect this car to jump that much. Just a small mistake, and I jumped out of line a bit into the bank.”
Conditions on the stage had changed significantly between passes, with Sunday morning’s damp and greasy opener giving way to drier and faster roads later in the day. Solberg admitted that made the corner difficult to judge, but did not look for excuses.
© Andy Craig
“It was a little bit hard to judge, and a small mistake,” he said. “Stupid still.
“But when you are fighting, it’s easy to say that you’re happy with P2. That was the goal too, just to try and see how it goes. Maybe you just get satisfied with P2, but when you’re only two seconds off...
“For sure, I have to try to stay positive, look forward, keep pushing and just move forward,” he continued.
“I don’t have so many rallies in the car and already a few wins. I just need to improve small details and do better. The speed and the feeling is there, so that’s fantastic, but I just need to improve the small details.”
The Swede also described his fight with Ogier as a “dream come true”, having already gone wheel-to-wheel with the nine-time world champion at earlier points this season.
“We were fighting in Monte-Carlo, we were fighting in Kenya on Super Sunday, and there also maybe we could have had a win in Kenya,” he said. “This weekend was another great fight together.
“It’s a dream come true to be able to fight with him every time we’ve been out there together.”
© WRC
Solberg’s retirement dropped him to fourth in the championship, 33 points behind new leader Elfyn Evans, but he insisted the approach would not change.
“You have to try every time and do your best,” he said. “I’m still young and very new in the car, and I guess I just need to learn all these small details to fine-tune the last little percentage. That’s what’s missing. The rest is there, which is fantastic.”
With FORUM8 Rally Japan in May offering another opportunity on asphalt, Solberg believes the performance shown in Canarias can be repeated.
“I’m a passionate guy, a motivated guy, and my goal is every race,” he added. “But I don’t have so much experience, so maybe I need to think of that too.
“But I will try. I have to try.”
