Former World Rally Champion Petter Solberg was convicted of driving at 112km/h in an 80km/h zone in Sweden last Friday and had his driver’s licence taken off him. In accordance with Swedish rules, drivers are allowed to continue driving 48 hours after the licence confiscation which meant he could continue the Rally of Sweden’s Friday and Saturday sessions.
Solberg just missed out on racing Sunday’s last Super Special stage and had to hand his Citroen DS3 WRC over to co-driver, Chris Patterson, to finish the event. Petter was caught speeding to the fifth stage of the rally on Friday at 2pm, which meant the ban kicked in at 2pm on Sunday.
Solberg said the ban won’t effect the rest of his WRC season though and will race in international stages despite losing his licence in Sweden.
“I have admitted my fault and will pay the fines. I will be prohibited from driving in Sweden, but only in Sweden, for one to two months. So there are no worries, my dedication to the WRC will remain in full force.”
The former rally champ was in a rush to the fifth stage of the rally but says he was driving too fast and took the infringement openly, saying he was guilty to the police officer straight away.
“I was stopped by the police officer and immediately declared myself guilty as charged which meant that the police withdrew my driving licence. However I, like everyone else, had the right to drive a car for 48 hours after the licence was withdrawn.”
It seems rather ironic that the former rally champ wasn’t able to race in the final stage of the Swedish Rally, regardless of the suspension. Solberg added,
“I tried to get an exemption so that I could drive the last stage as well but this did not work”.
