Solberg Pre-Tests Citroen C4 in New Zealand

While some of his rivals were sailing for bungee jumping from the Auckland Harbour Bridge, Petter Solberg preferred to use the last few days before this weekend's Rally New Zealand to test his Citroen C4 WRC on the roads of North Island. The Norwegian completed one day of testing on board of his privateer C4, on roads that resemble the ones to be tackled this weekend by the WRC field.

As you all know, only Manufacturer 1 teams are not allowed to test their WRC cars outside Europe, whereas the same rules don't apply for Manufacturer 2 teams. And, since Petter Solberg runs his own customer team in the series, he used this to get better acquainted with the New Zealand roads and hold an upper hand over his rivals.

However, Petter Solberg World Rally team manager Ken Rees played down the importance of the test, insisting that the few kilometers of running on Monday were only to test the car's settings for the upcoming event.

“We actually didn’t do that many kilometres, but it was on a road that was quite representative of the conditions. The test was more to confirm that Petter was happy with the settings as they were rather than to look for anything new. I don’t think it’s going to be a huge advantage for us,” said Rees.

Additionally, Rees insisted that the gravel roads encountered in New Zealand can be easily found in Europe too, so the Manufacturer 1 teams have already done their share of testing for the rally.

“It’s actually quite easy to find roads in Europe that are similar to the ones in New Zealand, so I don’t think that they will be on the back foot at all. For us, it’s just a question of making the best of what we have, but Petter is certainly feeling confident after the test,” added the manager.