From Lebanon to cross-category world titles - a rally legend's top 10

As a four-time winner of Rally GB, it was fitting that 2003 World Rally champion Petter Solberg should bring an illustrious spell in rallying and rallycross to a close on the event at which he had enjoyed more success than at any other.

It's little surprise either, then, that two of those GB successes rank among the most memorable of Solberg's results, though there was far more to his career than supremacy in the Welsh forests.

From the outing that helped him catch the eye of a WRC team boss, to the pace that justified an 11th-hour privateer programme, Solberg picks his personal highlights from a career that also yielded two World Rallycross titles.

10 RX of Argentina 2014

The final World Rallycross Championship round of 2014 in Argentina is one that sticks with Solberg, who had already added this crown to his 2003 World Rally title.

"We won everything that weekend in San Luis," he says. "OMP sent me a pair of gold race boots to wear - I remember the same thing happening for Tommi Makinen when I was his team-mate. That was special.

"We got some rain over the weekend, but the team, the car, everything just clicked and we could drive at our own speed and dominate a little bit. As a team we had worked really hard with the car to make everything right, and Argentina in 2014 was the result."

9 Rally Lebanon 1998

Short on asphalt experience and determined to demonstrate that he was more than a gravel racer, Solberg took his Toyota Celica GT-Four to the Middle East for Rally Lebanon.

"That was a real adventure," he says. "It was such a difficult rally. Mohammed bin Sulayem was a big help for me. I really appreciated that - and the fight we had, it was really good. I got the puncture on the last stage and finished second, but that was a good event."

Finishing second in Lebanon doesn't sound like it should make the top 10 of a world champion's career, but there are reasons beyond the result: "The rally was good, but it was what happened after that made it really important. I made a video tape after that event and I sent it to Malcolm [Wilson, boss of M-Sport]."

Nothing special in that; lots of drivers do the same. But one evening, after hearing the name 'Petter Solberg' again, Wilson was drawn to play the tape. The call was made soon after. "That rally got me my chance," says Solberg, who was offered a three-year deal by Wilson soon after.

8 Rally Finland 2003

Rally Finland commands 100% commitment and focus. Anything less and you're going to be nowhere - or in the trees. Starting with a temperature of 41C wasn't ideal for a fever-struck Solberg in 2003.

As the event progressed, he started to feel better and was able to pick up the pace in his Subaru. "In somewhere like Finland, you try to drive at 98%," says Solberg. "If you go to 100%, then the risks are big there. And if you go over the limit, then the risks are really big."

By Saturday night, Solberg was up to fourth, but just half a second separated himself, Carlos Sainz (third) and Richard Burns (second). "I wanted second," he says. "We pushed harder and harder. We lost the rear spoiler on one stage, which had a massive effect on the car, but we kept going."

Going to the last stage, Solberg was 1.8s down on Burns. "When we left service, I looked at 'Lappy' [Subaru technical director David Lapworth] and I could see the stress on the faces of him and the whole team," he continues. "It was so tense. On the way to the final stage we stopped on the road section and I tried to talk to him [Burns], but he didn't want to talk."

Solberg left nothing behind on the 8.7-mile Mokkipera finale and beat Burns by three seconds. The runner-up spot was his.

7 Safari Rally 1999

Solberg couldn't have joined Wilson's Ford squad at a more exciting time. The 1999 season would be the first for the team's all-new Ford Focus WRC. Being very much the team junior, Solberg didn't start the season opener in Monte Carlo and was given a Ford Escort WRC for the second round in Sweden, where he drove sensibly to 11th place. No heroics on his first official outing. Sitting at home preparing for a Norwegian national event, the call came to say he was needed in Kenya for the Safari Rally. Thomas Radstrom had broken his leg, and Solberg was being promoted to drive a factory Focus alongside Colin McRae.

"That 1999 season was unbelievable," says Solberg. "This was what I had wanted for so long. I remember when things like the team clothing arrived at the start of the year. I opened it and just stared at it. I couldn't believe it. I knew Safari would be tough, I hadn't done anything like that before."

It would be tougher still without regular co-driver Phil Mills. The team was only permitted to change one element of the entry; the car and co-driver Fred Gallagher remained. And preparations in Kenya weren't exactly ideal for Solberg, who went off the road at the pre-event test. But, once the rally was under way, he followed Wilson's word to the letter and delivered an outstanding fifth place.

"That was a good rally," he says. "Colin won in the Focus for the first time and we were in the top five. It was a tough event though. It took a lot to get your head around the fact that you had to drive in first gear sometimes. Then there was the rhino..."

The rhino? "Yes, we kissed him at 220km/h!"

6 Rally Norway 2009

Being told that Subaru would be pulling out of the World Rally Championship at the end of 2008 floored Solberg. Like the rest of the world, he didn't see it coming. Now what?

"There were not so many seats around at that time," he says. "Only Ford and Citroen were really there and, so late in the year, they both had drivers all sorted for the following year."

Other drivers would have tried to piece together a couple of events for the following season in an effort to put themselves in the frame for a 2010 seat. Not Solberg. "I had to continue," he says. "I just had to. The WRC was my life and I couldn't not be there. I had some offers to go to do things like endurance racing - I tested for Le Mans - but rallying was everything for me."

So Solberg picked up the phone in November and put it down just before the start of Rally Norway the following February: "Honestly, Christmas didn't exist at the end of that year. Me and Pernilla [Solberg's wife] were calling everybody to make this happen."

A Citroen Xsara WRC was sourced and a team created. "We couldn't make it in time for the first round in Monte Carlo," he says. "And it really hurt to see the first round starting without us. But it was nice, the second round was Norway - the first time the WRC ever came to my home."

And Solberg made the perfect start, fastest at the Thursday night superspecial in Oslo. The locals, as you can imagine, went mad. "The emotion at the end of that stage was incredible," he recalls. "I never forget the relief to get to that moment. It was so special."

Unfortunately, engine problems slowed him through the event, and first became sixth at the finish. "But that was the start of a new adventure," he says. "I always wanted to run my own team and maybe it came a little earlier than I thought, but Norway was the start of a journey that would lead me to some great results in the WRC and six World RX titles for my team [two drivers' championships apiece for Solberg and Johan Kristoffersson, and a pair of teams' titles]."

5 Rally Japan 2004

Going into 2004 as reigning champion was a good feeling for Solberg. The Subaru was a great evolution, and he was confident of more success in the year ahead. Two wins and two further podiums early on demonstrated that potential. "I felt I had the chance to win a lot of rallies in 2004," he says. "Everything was working well and looking good."

Then came Rally Germany, where he landed the Impreza WRC 04 on its roof on top of a hinkelstein. "That was a big one," says Solberg, wincing visibly at the memory. "And Japan was the next rally after that. It was the first time it was in the championship and, for a Japanese manufacturer, it was a really big thing for Subaru. We had great support from everybody in Subaru, but there was a big responsibility for me to lead the team on the home rally.

"It was a little bit difficult after Germany. Back in the car again, we had to try to forget about it. I think it was a bit more difficult for Phil [Mills, co-driver], because it was his side of the car that really took the big impact. But Phil was fantastic, he laughed about it because that was the mentality, that was the way to deal with these things. We got in the car and we got on with the job."

Solberg led from start to finish and dominated the rally, beating Sebastien Loeb by more than a minute. "That was a good win," he says. "And it stayed good. We won the next two rallies after that."

4 Tour de Corse 2003

Talk to Solberg about this one and there's still a wry smile and slight shake of the head. He still can't understand how he pulled it off. He arrived on the island knowing a good result was vital to a sustained challenge for the championship, but there was a nagging concern that, if it stayed dry, his Pirelli-shod Subaru Impreza WRC 03 would struggle against the French force that was Michelin, Loeb and a Citroen Xsara WRC.

All this paled into insignificance when Solberg caught some gravel on the outside of a fast right-hander on the shakedown. The car slid off the road and hit a telegraph pole. The damage to the side of the Subaru was huge, but Solberg and co-driver Phil Mills knew how lucky they'd been; either side of the telegraph pole there was a very steep drop down a Corsican mountain.

"The car came back to the service park and it was so badly damaged," says Solberg. "I was so low. Paul Howarth [Subaru operations director] said, 'No, no, no, we can fix this'. I wasn't sure. I was feeling so shit. I went to bed, but couldn't really sleep."

Through the night the Prodrive mechanics worked to pull the Subaru as straight as possible, effectively putting a new side into the car. It was scrutineered again on Friday morning. It passed.

"I was up really early and went to see the car," remembers Solberg. "I couldn't believe it. The paint was still wet, but it looked amazing. What a team! It was a crazy job, but it showed those guys had the same passion for the championship that I did."

Understandably, Solberg started slowly but built his speed and forced himself into the lead battle. He moved to the front of the field on the final Saturday stage and stayed there through Sunday.

Solberg remembers that Sunday afternoon fondly: "When we came back to the service to celebrate the win, I jumped on the roof and was just jumping up and down! I put some more dents in it, but I didn't care. I just couldn't believe what this incredible team had done. Thursday, we were lucky not to be dead, and four days later we are winning the rally."

3 Rally GB 2002

The breakthrough first win. "You don't forget those first moments," says Solberg. "I remember the first fastest time, the first time I led a WRC round, and the first podium. But the first win is really something." Solberg was locked in an intense battle with his former Subaru team-mate Markko Martin for the duration of what was a very challenging event.

"GB is always such a difficult race," he says. "It's a difficult place to push in the fight because you just don't know what the grip's going to be like. When you have more experience then you can play the game a little bit more, but I was so nervous for the whole event.

"Markko and me both really wanted that one so bad, we were both chasing for our first win. It was a big deal. All the time I was trying so hard not to think too much about what I was doing and just drive. I kept telling myself this, 'Just drive. Just. Drive.'

"When we won, what was really incredible for me was the way Malcolm [Wilson] was the first to come to me to say congratulations. That meant so much to me." Solberg had left Wilson's team midway through the 2000 season, bound for Subaru.

2 Rally New Zealand 2001

All World Rally Championship drivers love New Zealand's fast, cambered roads, but Solberg's mind was anywhere but on the stages during the final day of the 2001 Auckland-based event. He finished seventh and won some stages. But, by the end of the event, his life had changed forever.

Dozing in his hotel room after the event's second leg, Solberg got a call from home to say his wife Pernilla had been taken ill. She was six months pregnant at the time. "I didn't know what to do," he says. "It was so difficult, I was shaking, I just wanted information to know how is Pernilla. What is happening?"

Solberg got up and drove the next day's eight stages, winning four of them in his Subaru. "It was like I was in a trance," he says. "I came from the stage and went straight to the phone to find out more. I was shaking."

He finished the event and drove straight to the airport. And, on the way, he got news that he'd become a father to Oliver. Wife and son were both doing as well as could be expected for such a premature birth. "I will never forget that flight home," says Solberg. "Tommi [Makinen] and I celebrated.

"You know that rallying is everything for me, but as time goes on you realise that some things - like my family - are more important. Getting home and seeing Pernilla and Oliver was everything."

1 Rally GB 2003

After celebrating his maiden World Rally Championship win in Wales 12 months earlier, Solberg made a promise to Subaru Tecnica International boss Masaru Katsurada. And he delivered in Cardiff, 2003.

He smiles at the memory of a conversation with the Japanese: "At the end of the 2002 GB, Katsurada-san said to me, 'Petter, more champagne. We need more champagne at the end of the rally'. I told him we would have a lot to celebrate when we came back to Wales."

Quickest out of the blocks around Cardiff's superspecial on Thursday night, Solberg relinquished the lead briefly on Friday morning, but fastest time in Rheola (SS4) was enough to nudge the Subaru to the top of the timesheets, where it remained until the finish. Potent a force as Loeb was at that time, he never looked like beating Solberg on an event where he and his Welsh co-driver Phil Mills looked utterly at home.

"I remember we hit a rock on the second to last stage," says Solberg. "As I drove, I was waiting, waiting, waiting, thinking, 'Please no...' but we didn't get a puncture."

And then came Margam. If Solberg made Rally GB his own, winning for four straight years, then he really made the Margam Park stage his own. Nobody could touch his committed and insanely quick approach down the hill.

"I won that rally and the championship with Tommi [Makinen]," says Solberg. "It was a proper one. I learned so much from these incredible guys like him, Colin [McRae], Carlos [Sainz] and Richard [Burns]. They were the proper hard sportsmen, but they weren't afraid to help. I never forget them and I never forget that rally. It was proper."