ERC
Remembering when… Solberg became ERC’s youngest winner
Oliver Solberg starts the deciding leg of Rally Latvia today (Sunday) on the brink of making history as the first winner of an FIA WRC2 Championship round in the country.
Solberg also made history in Latvia in May 2019 when, aged 17, he became the youngest winner of an FIA European Rally Championship event by winning Rally Liepāja on his debut in the Rally2-based Junior ERC category.
The son of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg led the high-speed gravel event from start to finish in his Pirelli-equipped Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, posting the fastest time on 10 of the 13 stages alongside co-driver Aaron Johnston.
Heading reigning ERC champion Alexey Lukyanuk by 9.7sec at the end of the first leg, Solberg was able to ncrease his advantage on the final day and finished up 22.7sec clear of his rival.
Remembering when… Solberg became ERC’s youngest winner
© ERC
“It's the biggest day of my life,” Solberg said at the time. “I have never driven so good as I've done now. I don't know what to say. It's unbelievable, I can't understand it. It's been such a perfect rally. On the penultimate stage I was too cautious, I was driving too stiff. Then I thought I'll just do what I've done the whole weekend and go flat out, and I won the last stage. I'm so happy.”
Behind Lukyanuk, Mārtiņš Sesks secured the final place on the podium on his first event driving an Rally2 car.
