LONDON, 6 November 2003 — The rough Welsh mountain roads and muddy forest tracks will lead to world rally championship glory for either Carlos Sainz, Sebastien Loeb or Petter Solberg this weekend.
The three start their quest in Cardiff tonight in a momentous winner-takes-all climax to the closest season in rallying history. By Sunday afternoon either Spain’s Sainz will have captured the long-awaited third title of his career or France’s Loeb and Norway’s Solberg will have added their names to the list of champions.
The only thing that is guaranteed is that there will be a different champion to last year, when Peugeot’s flying Finn Marcus Gronholm won his second title.
Briton Richard Burns would have been a fourth contender, five points off the lead before an event that he has won three times, but he was ruled out this week after fainting at the wheel while driving on the motorway.
Sainz and Loeb, Citroen teammates, start as joint championship leaders but Subaru’s Solberg is only a point behind them and seen as the favorite.
“I think, looking back at last year’s result and results of Subaru and Pirelli in previous years, Petter Solberg has the most possibilities,” said Sainz, who has just one win this season to his rivals’ three each.
Britain’s Colin McRae and Gronholm have tipped Solberg, last year’s winner in Britain, as their favorite. “Carlos doesn’t have a very good record on Rally GB,” McRae told Motorsport News weekly this week. “I think he’ll find it a bit difficult against drivers like Petter and Sebastien. “I think Sebastien’s at a bit of a psychological disadvantage, because Petter’s won the rally before and he doesn’t have much experience, but I think he could spring a surprise. He went very well in Australia.”
If any of the three wins in the rally, they will be champion. But none have to win.
Sainz, like Loeb, merely has to keep ahead of the other two while Solberg needs to score two points more than his Citroen rivals. If any two of the three go out, the third can cruise to the title.
