Solberg joins rally elite

Wales Rally GB photos Final day report Final standings

Petter Solberg has gone from being a driver seeking his first world rally win to champion in the space of just 12 months.

The 28-year-old became the first Norwegian to win the title when clinched victory in the season-ending Wales Rally GB.

A year ago, the Subaru driver won his first-ever world championship event in Wales after four seasons of trying.

That triumph sealed runner-up spot in the 2002 championship for Solberg.

This year he has been steadily improving and consistently among the front-runners, winning on four occasions.

He also managed to score points in every rally he finished, taking third place in Finland, San Remo and Australia.

Solberg, though not one of the favourites for the title, was never out of the running, always doing enough to give himself a chance.

PETTER SOLBERG Born: 18/11/74 Nationality: Norwegian Team: Subaru Last season: 2nd

It was his outstanding victory in Corsica which put him in real contention going into the last two rallies of the year.

He was further boosted by an exciting final stage in the Catalunya Rally, when a combination of events saw him take fifth.

Gilles Panizzi's last-gasp win for Peugeot, threw a spanner in the works for Solberg's title rivals Sebastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz.

So Subaru's contender found himself just one point behind the Citroen pair going into the Wales Rally GB.

Sainz's challenge ended on Friday when he crashed out, meaning Citroen then ordered Loeb to avoid doing likewise as they chased the manufacturers' title.

Solberg made a late surge in the title race

They eventually got what they wanted, even if their French driver didn't - but Solberg certainly did.

Co-driven by Welshman Phil Mills, he safely negotiated the final three stages to win by 43.6 seconds from Loeb.

Yet Solberg's early experiences of the British leg of the championship were not happy ones.

He won the Norwegian title in 1996 but crashed out of that year's Network Q Rally, and did the same in 2000 after a switch from Ford to Subaru.

Solberg still managed a creditable 10th in the title race, and his first podium finish came in 2001 with a second place in the Acropolis Rally.

But once again he failed to finish in Britain, this time running out of fuel. Last year's win, however, confirmed his coming of age in the sport's elite.

Even before his triumph this year, the generally-accepted wisdom was that it was not a matter of if Solberg would win the title, but when.

Now the question is how many can he add to his first.