Home Win: Solberg Leads WRC2 In Sweden

From being the fastest Rally2 driver at Rallye Monte-Carlo, to winning the Race of Champions Nations Cup, to now leading the WRC2 standings after a win in front of his home crowd - it’s been a hell of a few weeks for Oliver Solberg. 

The 21 year old scored his maiden WRC2 victory with a dominant performance at the 2023 Rally Sweden, rocketing to win eight of the event’s 18 stages. 

“This is such a nice result,” said Oliver. “I really feel we did a good job with this one. We were consistent, no mistakes, Elliott [Edmondson, co-driver] did a fantastic job and so did the team. I’m very, very happy. The route was really quick, and nice and wide in places, so we could make some margin and really push. But it definitely wasn’t so easy. There was some understeer in the car on some of the twisty sections and we were running as the first car on to the stage.”

Explaining the issue of following the Rally1 cars, Oliver added: “They are a little bit wider and they have more power, so they are making a set of lines and ruts in the road which we have to follow. 

“But in some places, because our car is a little bit more narrow, we have one set of wheels on the left or on the right side out of the ruts and jumping around. Basically, it makes the car a little bit unstable; this is no problem when you are in second or third gear, but when you have a lot of speed and you’re flat out in fifth then it’s not always making you smile!

“The main thing for me – the only thing for me – is that we came here, we took more experience from the car and we were able to win the event and take the maximum bonus points from the stage. I have to be very happy with that one.I think it’s fair to say I am happy with everything in my life, right now,” he said. “The win, to be joint leading the championship and to be with this team and this car… it’s all good right now!”

Check out Oliver in action in the Swedish snow by hitting play below…