Solberg relishes final fight
Petter Solberg admits he is going all out to secure victory on the final rally of the season in Australia this weekend, but the Subaru ace knows that his rival for second place in the drivers' championship, Markko Martin, will be pushing for the win too
Likewise, the newly crowned Citroen star Sebastien Loeb has nothing to lose from giving his maximum to clinch the rally win too.
"This will be a special rally," Solberg said. "I'm glad to be getting back to gravel where everything works well. I feel I'm really ready to get out there again and do the best I can - I'm hungry for success. Getting second in the championship will be like a victory for me, and will make me want more next year for sure.
"I think Markko will be going for it, and Sebastien, as he has nothing to lose now. It will be a hell of a fight. It's one of my favourite rallies. I won it last year, and it would be great to repeat that. It would be a good way to end the year, so I'm going to go for it, but somehow I don't think I'll be the only one doing that."
Team boss David Lapworth is predicting a tough squabble for the Aussie honours and believes starting position on the first day will be crucial to events.
"This is a rally where, if it stays dry, the effect of running further down the order is the biggest," he said: "As more and more gravel gets cleaned away by each car, it gets faster and faster. By the time we get to the stages on Sunday, you may see two seconds a kilometre difference between the first and fifteenth cars on the road. Tyre choice will also be a challenge, as it's likely to be a bit drier than normal in Perth this year due to the date change."
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Question: what could be harder than becoming the youngest-ever World Rally champion? Answer: becoming the youngest-ever two-time World Rally champion. That's quite the challenge facing Toyota's Kalle Rovanpera in 2022, particularly against rejuvenated opposition in the second year of the WRC's hybrid regulations
From F1 to WRC: Why Hyundai's new boss could be an inspired signing
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The ultimate rally car project the WRC is glad COVID killed
Toyota was unstoppable in the 2021 World Rally Championship, with an excellent 75% strike rate from 12 rallies. But in a scary proposition for its rivals, the Japanese marque had built a car for the final year of the previous regulations set which it believes was much faster and could feasibly have crushed the opposition completely. Here the story of its mothballed world-beater
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