Solberg rues costly mistake
Subaru's Petter Solberg admitted he was disappointed to end his season with a retirement after hitting a rock on the third stage of the first leg of this weekend's Telstra Rally Australia.
The Norwegian had been running in second spot behind Peugeot's Marcus Gronholm when he hit the rock and was forced out of the rally. Solberg will continue the rally on leg two on Saturday under the SupeRally system, but will not be eligible to score any points.
"It's too bad, I didn't want to end the season like this, but that's just how it is sometimes," he said. "I was 5.8km from the start line on a right hand, third-gear corner and there was a rock on the apex, which I hit and broke the end of the steering arm. After that we couldn't steer and went off the road on the other side. Apart from that, the car is okay. We'll get it fixed and I'm looking forward to getting out there again tomorrow."
Despite his retirement, Solberg is guaranteed the runners-up slot in the drivers' championship after rival Markko Martin (Ford) retired before the rally proper had even begun. The Estonian suffered engine problems on the first stage of the rally on Thursday evening and his engineers were unable to fix the problem before the action kicked off this morning.
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