Petter Solberg finished in 4th place, 16.5 seconds shy of a podium, scoring 5 points for Subaru. Chris Atkinson on the other hand made a mistake on Leg 2: about 18km into SS9, he spun off into a snow bank and got stuck at the edge of the road. This cost him about 16 minutes, dropping him out of the top ten. He finished the rally 19th.
This was the last rally for the Subaru WRC06: the next event is Mexico, and the Subaru World Rally Team will get to drive the Subaru WRC 2007 car for the first time. Both pilots are eager to compete in the new car, as the both feel they will be much more competitive driving the new WRC07.
Petter Solberg:
“It was a shame that Henning got past me, but I’m still happy with this result in the circumstances. We couldn’t have gone any quicker. We have been very realistic about what we can achieve on this rally and we have followed our strategy accordingly. The main thing was for us to finish in the points and not make any mistakes. This was the final rally with the WRC2006 and the points we’ve got here are very important for the season. It has been an incredible experience to drive these stages in front of so many spectators and see so many Norwegian flags.”
Chris Atkinson:
“It’s been a tough rally for us, although there’s no doubt that without the mistake on Saturday morning we would have been in the points. I have struggled a bit with my confidence this weekend compared to Sweden. I haven’t been able to have the same feeling with the car. Now this rally is over we can start to look forward to Mexico and the first rally with the new WRC2007. We can make some steps forward now.”
Source: SWRT