Solberg: Rallying past my front door

After the start my co-driver Chris Patterson and I made on the Monte Carlo Rally, I just couldn't wait to get back in the car for Rally Sweden. Driving the Ford Fiesta RS WRC on the asphalt in France was great, but getting it on the loose was, I was told, going to be something else.

Everybody told me the car is even better on the loose.

Everybody, you are right.

I had my first test of the car in these conditions in northern Sweden at temperatures close to minus 30 degrees the week before the second round of the World Rally Championship. I was smiling straight away.

My two-day test went really well. I went through the full range of settings and got very comfortable in the car. We'd had a lot of snow during the test and, when I left and headed south for the recce, I felt the car was perfect.

The conditions on the rally changed a little bit from the test. The weather was never quite so cold again so we didn't get quite so much snow and there were quite a few more ruts. When I saw these conditions like this, I was a little bit worried. Privately, I told Malcolm [Wilson, Ford World Rally Team principal] that this could be the toughest event of the year for me.

Solberg gets into gear on the Superspecial that kicked off Rally Sweden © LAT

I think there's a feeling that because I'm from Norway, I'm always going to be at home in the snow and usually that's right, but learning a new car on a different set-up is far from easy on rutted roads with gravel sometimes coming through and the level of ice always changing. In these conditions, you don't know from one corner to the next how much grip you have underneath you and you don't know how much you are losing the studs from the tyre.

This was what I was worried about.

As you will know, the first day of Rally Sweden was in Norway - not such a bad thing when you have a passport like mine! There was quite a lot of build-up about this part of the event at home and I was pretty aware about it, I have to say. I think it's great the way the two countries work together and to cross the border flat-out in the middle of a stage is great.

The stage which took us across into Norway is one I know a little bit...

My farmhouse is at the side of the road, so I knew there would be a few people around that would recognise me. I had made the conscious decisions before we got to this section that I would be really boring. I was not going to make any mistakes in front of all of these people. We saw what happen when Mikko [Hirvonen] told all of his friends to go to the corner he knew best on Rally Finland a couple of years ago. I was determined not to have that happen - I think I was probably the slowest car past my house in the end, so I should probably apologise to my friends!

It was great to be driving in Norway, but with the conditions not quite the same as the test, I was still trying to find the right set-up for the car. I made a change on Saturday when I made my car more like the way Jari-Matti [Latvala] had his Fiesta running. This helped straight away. I felt happier with the car.

Looks spectacular here, but Petter took it easy passing his front garden © LAT

By then Jari-Matti and Mikko had taken some time and I wasn't quite in the same battle for the lead as them. But I was certainly in the battle with Mads Ostberg. We saw last year how quick Mads was on this event and he certainly hasn't got any slower! It was close between us going into the final day, but I honestly believe we would have held on to the podium place if it hadn't been for that rock in the middle of the corner three stages from the end of the event. We had been at minus two on the split times when I came through a right-hander and saw the rock there.

We hit it, Jari-Matti hit it and then Andreas [Mikkelsen] hit it as well - you could say this was the Nordic rock! The front-right tyre on my Fiesta went flat straight away. There was nothing we could do to stop the time loss. Of course, at the end of the stage, I was so disappointed. We had come so close to making a second podium in succession, but in the end we would be fourth.

The good thing is that Jari-Matti won and that's a fantastic feeling for the team. Don't forget, it's been a while since I was in a team to win a rally - so being back and having that feeling with Ford again is just fantastic. We are close with Citroen, 10 points in the manufacturers' race - and we're going to make that even closer!

For now it's Mexico, a rally I really like. Actually, I really like all the rallies. But Mexico is going to be the first gravel event for me in the Fiesta RS WRC, so I'm very, very much looking forward to getting there.

Before we head west, I've got two days of rough gravel testing in Spain and maybe another test before that. I had forgotten just what a fantastic job is it being a factory driver in the Ford World Rally Team.

Yes, I might be a bit disappointed not to have taken another podium for the team - but I can honestly tell you I haven't been happier than I am right now for a very long time!