Solberg upbeat despite Safari exit
Petter Solberg remained optimistic despite retiring from the Safari Rally when a wheel came off his Subaru Impreza on the first of Leg Three's tests
The Subaru young gun was lying in third place overall before his Impreza started to develop wheel bearing problems on the longest of the rally's sections, Oltepesi. Solberg tired to repair his ailing Subaru, but when the wheel fell off completely team officials decided to call it a day.
"I think it is very bad luck," said the Norwegian. "On the road section to the stage we felt the wheel bearings were quite noisy. Then we went 60km into the stage and we started to feel it more and more.
"Then we saw the wheel coming out of the side and that was it. We tried to get the suspension off to get to the finish - Phil (co-driver Phil Mills) even got on to the boot to balance the car - but the team told us not to do anything stupid."
However Solberg maintains this setback won't dent his prospects as he continues to impress this year with mature drives.
"I have good rhythm and good psychology," he added. "All we can do now is look forward to the next round in Finland."
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