Petter Solberg sets his sights on being first, first

Petter Solberg speaks:

First driver ever to win a round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

First driver to lead the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

First driver ever to win two rounds of the FIA World Rallycross Championship.

First driver to win a FIA World Rallycross Championship round outside Europe.

Come to think of it… first driver to win a FIA World Rallycross Championship round inside Europe.

First driver to win a round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship run in the dark.

Okay, enough now. My team has been telling me these details about the season so far and it’s nice. It’s nice for us all to think about that. We had a good break in the summer and then we came back and had a fantastic time in Canada where we won again, but everything that has happened now is history.

All I am interested in is what is right ahead of me now. And that’s World RX of France in Lohéac.

I really like this track. We have tested here a few times – the last time being just before we won in Portugal at the start of the year – and I feel really comfortable on the circuit. It’s a good one.

We have four rounds of the championship in five weeks. In the first half of the year, we had three races in three weeks (Finland, Sweden and Belgium) and that was so intense. Now we have the same, but the level of intensity will last for five weeks as we go from France to Germany to Italy to Turkey.

A big five weeks

This is going to be a very, very big five weeks. By the time we are finished with the race at Istanbul Park, we will only have Argentina left and we will have a really clear picture of which way this first FIA World Rallycross Championship is going.

Believe me, that first is the only first I’m really interested in!

The good thing for the PSRX team is that we are the best team – I have no doubt about that. The people who wear the PSRX shirt do it because they are the best in the world at what they do. So many times this year I have called on my guys and they have always made me a winning car, they have always got everything right.

To go to the grid knowing that you have people like that behind you means so much, it means I can focus 100 per cent on getting off the line before anybody else and through the last corner first.

And the team will be working on two cars again this weekend, as PSRX welcomes Italian driver Simone Romagna. We are very excited about what he can manage in our 2013 car.

But now to France, I was second last year. This weekend the aim is simple, to go one better. I want to be first…

Petter Solberg