Oliver Solberg is proud of his performance and the season he had in WRC2 class this year, but it is hard for him to sit out of Rally Japan and to wait to see what his rivals will do at the season finale.
The Swede driver is currently leading WRC2 championship with 123 points while his closest rivals are Yohan Rossel and Sami Pajari who are 12 and 15 points behind him respectively. Solberg made some outings with the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 as a non-nominated driver in order to gain experience in some events, such as Rallye Monte Carlo, while Rally Chile was his final event in which he scored points for the WRC2 championship. He finished at the top step of the podium three times (Rally Sweden, Rally Latvia, Rally Finland) and has two finishes at the second place while he has only one retirement which happened in Portugal after his having rolled his car. However, he competed at Central European Rally as a non-nominated driver and finished second on his class showing his speed again while it must be mentioned that he was the fastest driver in 59 stages. Last but not least, it is rumored that Solberg will make his return back to the top level with Toyota or M-Sport Ford in 2025, but Toyota may finalize its driver line-up at Rally Japan as the team does the recent years.
"It’s tough to sit and watch Japan happen, but what can we do?", Solberg said.
"I’m really proud of what we have achieved together – it’s been such a strong season for us and I believe we deserve the title.
"Okay, now we have to wait to Japan to find out if it comes for us, but we have done all we could and that’s all we can say.
"The team has all worked so well together this season – it’s this kind of team work, that makes it possible for us to win the stages we have won and, of course, three WRC2 rounds.
"We’re the only crew to have won a stage on every event started and we’ve won 42% of them!
"This is where our season ends, there’s no Japan for us.
"I’m a little bit sad for that, I love Japan and the passion that country has for our sport.
"I would love to be driving there and sharing that event, but, like I said, I can only be happy for what we achieved as a team this season.
"Thanks again to everybody for all the support".
Source: wrc.com
Photo Credits: Red Bull Content Pool
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