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– The greatest I’ve ever achieved. All I do every day from getting up to going to bed is winning World Cup races and eventually the rally championship, Oliver Solberg says in a press release.
The 18-year-old won his class (WRC3) in Rally Estonia with superiority and finished the race 59 seconds behind the closest challenger.
At the same time, it was better than everyone else in the WRC2 class, where factory drivers are also allowed. Even the winner of the WRC2 class, Norwegian Mads Østberg, had to be beaten by 38.7 seconds by the 18-year-old talent.
“We take new steps in the right direction all the time, and this was another one on the way,” says Solberg.
Overall, the rally talent finished in ninth place at Rally Estonia, with only top WRC class drivers ahead.
Bragden makes him the second youngest class winner of all time in a World Cup round, behind Finn Kalle Rovenperä. The Finn won six World Cup races when he was 18 years old, the first when he was 11 months younger than Oliver Solberg.
It was fast for Oliver Solberg at Rally Estonia. In the end, he was beaten only by the heaviest cars in the World Cup circus.
Photo: PS 110%
Dad Petter: – He drives very smart.
Oliver Solberg made his World Rally Championship debut with a duel against his own father Petter Solberg in Wales in 2019. The race marked the start of Oliver’s career as a World Championship driver, at the same time that his father thanked the maximum level.
Petter Solberg is proud of his son’s accomplishments in the WC.
Photo: Bjørn Solli / NRK
This weekend’s World Cup round was Oliver’s fifth in his career. In an interview with VG, Dad Petter couldn’t contain his enthusiasm for his son’s accomplishments.
– That is incredible! Drive so smart, she says.
– Oliver was careful on Sunday. There has been no reason to “push” to win the tests, he led, of course. But then he has won stages anyway, he adds.
The youngest winner of the European Championship round
In this way, the Solberg family can rejoice at another milestone in the younger man’s still short rally career.
The 18-year-old became the youngest winner of a European Rally Championship event when, at 17 years old without a driver’s license, he crushed everyone in the European Championship debut at Rally Latvia Latvia last year.
The victory made headlines around the world when Solberg beat current European champion Alexei Lukyanuk by nearly half a minute.
Just over a month later, he obtained a car driver’s license, after first passing the theory test, and was thus ready to make his World Cup debut in the same place where Petter Solberg was proclaimed world champion in 2003 .
