SWANSEA, Wales, 9 November 2003 — Petter Solberg stayed on course for his first world rally title as French rival Sebastien Loeb, told by Citroen bosses to play safe, lost ground in Britain yesterday.
The Norwegian made a perfect start to the second leg, steering his Subaru through the Welsh forests to stretch his overnight lead from eight to 31.3 seconds after 13 of the rally’s 18 stages.
The winner in Britain last year, Solberg was quickest through all of the first six of yesterday’s eight stages. He must beat Loeb, the overall leader whose efforts appeared to have been sacrificed by a team more intent on winning the manufacturers’ title in their first full season, to take the crown.
The Citroen man, who said he was slowed by a poor tire choice, is a point clear of Solberg in the standings with no other driver in contention after the retirement on Friday of Citroen’s Spanish hope Carlos Sainz.
Apart from Loeb, Citroen have Britain’s former champion Colin McRae fighting hard in fourth place.
Peugeot, champions for the last three years and part of the same PSA automotive group, are Citroen’s sole rivals five points behind. They had Finland’s Harri Rovanpera in fifth place and Belgian Freddy Loix in seventh after 2002 champion Marcus Gronholm of Finland retired on Friday but were gloomy about their chances.
Solberg said he had seen little sign of Loeb, who was just 0.1 of a second slower than him on the 12th Margam stage, slowing up but agreed that he was in a good position. Solberg’s Finnish teammate Tommi Makinen, in his final championship appearance before retirement, was in third place a massive two minutes and 3.9 seconds behind.
The Finn turned up yesterday in gold boots with the dates of his unprecedented four consecutive titles embroidered on them. His battle with old foe McRae, recalling past glory days, was a highlight of a rally that had lost much of its suspense after being billed as the closest showdown in the sport’s history.
