Petter Solberg’s PSRX team has claimed its second title in successive years, after the Norwegian owener-driver won back-to-back FIA World Rallycross Drivers Championship titles.
The result marks Solberg’s third FIA World title, which makes him the 17th driver in the history of motorsport to take a third FIA title. The PSRX squad finished in third in the Manufacturers Championship, behind the factory-backed Peugeot Hansen and Ford Olsberg entries.
Despite only needing five points to claim the title at the weekend’s round in Rosario, Argentina (November 29th), a condensed running order due to bad weather on the Saturday and a gearbox issue during practice did cause some concern for the team.
“There was an issue with the wiring loom, which burned out and meant the gear-cut stopped working; this made it so difficult for me to get a gear,” explained Solberg. “For me, this is where PSRX showed why we are world champions. Nobody panicked, nobody was worried. OK, I was a little bit stressed, but the guys got the problem fixed.
“We have had a big plan for the PSRX team in the second half of this year. I had to drive smart; I couldn’t go flat out all of the time, we couldn’t risk anything,” he continued. “It would have been the perfect finish to win, but really I don’t care so much. I came here with one objective and we did that.”
“Results don’t lie: over the course of the season both Petter [Solberg] and Team Peugeot-Hansen have proved themselves worthy winners of their respective championships,” added Paul Bellamy, World RX managing director for IMG. “It’s also been great to witness our eighth different winner in World RX this weekend – congratulations to Robin [Larsson] on his debut RX victory. It’s great to see so many different drivers capable of winning in World RX, and this fact coupled with fantastic door-to-door racing means we are getting interest from more and more TV channels. Today we had an encouraging number of broadcasters take our two-hour live show. Next year promises to be another fantastic season, I expect to see many drivers capable of winning the championship and look forward to making the sport even more spectacular for our fans.”
Drivers’ championship positions:
1: Petter Solberg 297pts
2: Timmy Hansen 274pts
3: Johan Kristoffersson 234pts
Teams’ championship positions:
1: Peugeot-Hansen 442pts
2: Ford Olsbergs 379pts
3: SDRX 312pts
