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.
Haas: No plans to change F1 team model despite nearing budget cap
Gunther Steiner says there is no plan for Haas to change the model of its Formula 1 team despite nearing the budget cap with a new title sponsor.
Supercars team reveals coin toss chassis allocation
Supercars squad Team 18 used a combination of a coin toss and a ping pong ball lottery to allocate its new chassis to drivers Scott Pye and Mark Winterbottom.
HPD boss "amazed" by GTP reliability on debut at Daytona 24 Hours
The boss of Honda Performance Developments has expressed his amazement at the high levels of reliability demonstrated by the all-new GTP prototypes in last weekend's Daytona 24 Hours.
Is AI ready to take over Formula 1 strategy?
The viral success of ChatGPT since its launch has lifted interest surrounding Artificial Intelligence to new heights.
How fired-up Ogier became the WRC's ultimate Monte master
He may only be contesting a part-time campaign in the World Rally Championship these days, but Sebastien Ogier underlined that he's lost none of his speed in the 2023 season opener. Storming to yet another victory on the Monte Carlo Rally, the eight-time world champion rewrote the history books again as Toyota served notice of its intentions with a crushing 1-2
How Lancia pulled off its famous Monte Carlo giantkilling
Audi should have been invincible in the snowy conditions that typically greeted the World Rally Championship paddock in Monte Carlo. But unexpectedly warm weather for the 1983 season opener, combined with some left-field thinking from the Lancia crew turned the tables. Forty years on, team boss Cesare Fiorio reflects on a smash and grab
Why M-Sport has pinned all its efforts on a WRC reunion
M-Sport had a disastrous 2022 with its Rally1 Ford Pumas following Sebastien Loeb’s first-time-out win on the Monte. But now things are looking up with 2019 world champion Ott Tanak leading its attack, and the Cumbrian operation has optimism that it can challenge for a first title since Sebastien Ogier's departure at the end of 2018
The contenders seeking to take Rovanpera's WRC crown
As Kalle Rovanpera begins his World Rally Championship title defence in Monte Carlo, the Finn knows he has a target on his back. But who is best placed to knock the Toyota ace off his perch?
Why Rovanpera is anticipating a fight to defend his WRC title
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
OPINION: New Hyundai WRC team boss Cyril Abiteboul admits he’s got a lot to learn as he leads the marque's efforts to dethrone Toyota. But could his Formula 1 experience and evident strengths mean he turns out to be an inspired choice?
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
Autosport writers' most memorable moments of 2022
The season just gone was a memorable one for many of our staff writers, who are fortunate enough to cover motorsport around the world. Here are our picks of the best (and in some cases, most eventful) from 2022
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.