Petter Solberg announces his retirement

Ten years after he became the last Scandinavian driver to become the FIA’s world rally champion, 38 year old Norwegian Petter Solberg has today announced his retirement from the sport. 

Petter won the world title in 2003 and all his 13 WRC victories were with Subaru.  After Subaru  withdrew from the WRC at the end of 2008, he courageously and defiantly ran a private Citroen team for three years in which he gained 12 podium results including ten in 2010. 

When Mikko Hirvonen moved at the end of 2011 to Citroen, Petter was invited back as a works driver to the Ford team, which he had left in a fractious situation in 2000 as support driver for Jari-Matti Latvala.  He gained collosal experience of WRC rallying having contested 188 world championship rallies, with only Carlos Sainz having more experience.