Oliver Solberg has talked DirtFish through the accident that ended his Rally Islas Canarias on the second-to-last stage.
The Toyota driver had been just 2.2 seconds behind team-mate Sébastien Ogier prior to SS17 of 18, but got his line wrong over a crest and ran into an Armco barrier, which removed the front-left wheel from his GR Yaris Rally1.
“It was a small mistake,” Solberg told DirtFish. “There was a small jump and I just jumped a bit too far and yeah, went into the Armco unfortunately.
“This morning of course it was quite wet so I was driving quite slow over this place, and now when it was dry I didn’t expect it to jump that far I think and just jumped a little bit too far and lost the line unfortunately.”
Solberg refuted the idea that he was pushing too hard, with him and Ogier in such a tight fight for the lead.
“That was never the main focus,” he said, “but I just tried to do my rhythm the whole way really. Looking at the splits I was six tenths down [on Ogier] so it was nothing crazy and just a smooth drive to be honest.”
It’s the second event in a row where Solberg has crashed out. In Croatia, he understeered early on the very first stage and pinballed off a bank and off the road.
“I’m as sad now as I was then,” Solberg admitted. “It hits hard whenever it happens and whatever happens. I think we were in a great fight but also [lost] very important points for the championship, so… yeah. It’s not nice.
“After Croatia the goal was to build up step by step and it looked very good the whole weekend, fantastic speed the whole weekend the first time really on proper Tarmac with the car and yeah, just a small misjudgement over that small jump.”
Solberg is now 33 points adrift of championship leader Elfyn Evans, but will start Rally Portugal fourth on the road with team-mates Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari also ahead of him in the standings.
