Henning Solberg Accepts Blame

Ford's Henning Solberg took the blame for his accident on SS7, because he hadn't written about a pile of logs in his pace notes

Tim Redmayne Sep 17, 2005, 2:54 PM

Solberg, whose brother Petter is currently in second place, lost more than a minute in the accident and is now in 14th place, having been fighting for fifth.

Solberg hit a pile of logs on the outside of a corner on the 19.47km Crychan stage, damaging the rear of his focus.

Solberg told Autosport-Atlas: "It was a big lot of timber which was outside of the corner. I hit the timber and went backwards at 170km/h. I didn't have it in my pace notes so it was my fault.

"I backed into a grass bank so that was my good luck. It could have been much, much worse."

The accident affected the steering on the car for the next two stages. Repair work will be carried out in this lunchtime's service period.

"The steering is weird because the wheel is off centre and it is very bent. It is hard to know where I'm going. I was having to sit in the middle of the car to keep it in a straight line."