Petter Solberg Rally Australia leg 2 summary

Petter and Chris hold onto third at the end of day two of Rally Australia.

Petter Solberg and Chris Patterson, Citroën DS3 WRC, Petter Solberg Rallying

Photo by: Citroën Communication

A drier start to day two of Rally Australia and a second fastest stage time for Petter and Chris on SS11, the first one of the morning. Jari-Matti Latvala set the fastest time through, taking the rally lead from his Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen in the process. Latvala went on to win all four of the morning stages but his winning run was halted in the afternoon by the Citroën’s of Sebastien Ogier and Sebastien Loeb who restarted on day two under SupeRally regulations, as did Ken Block, Peter van Merksteijn jr, and Evgeny Novikov.

Loeb and Ogier alternated stage wins in the afternoon with Petter and Chris taking third fastest on four of the six stages. Henning Solberg stopped on SS15 with an electrical glitch, losing his fourth place to Matthew Wilson. Like yesterday, the day closed with two runs through the Coffs Harbour Super Special stage. Loeb was fastest through the first run and Ogier fastest through the second followed by Petter, who kept the Ford’s of Hirvonen and Latvala behind him on both runs.

- It’s been a very good day, says Petter Solberg. – I was a bit disappointed this morning, but this afternoon made up for that. Didn’t really get to find the balance at first, but it got a lot better this afternoon. It feels good to have the same speed as the others, and knowing that I’m able to keep up with them. It’s a long day to go tomorrow, and I will push as much as possible!

Jari-Matti Latvala is the overnight leader of Rally Australia, followed by his Ford team-mate Mikko Hirvonen. Petter and Chris are still in third place overall at the end of day two.

Rally Australia continues with six stages on Sunday. First car is on the road from 0656 local time.