Solberg Sr said: ”You can’t choose which ones you win or lose. When I came to World RX of Sweden, I desperately wanted to win what I consider to be my second home track. In the end I finished third in the final and took a pretty nice point score away from the weekend – enough to move back up into second place in the championship. I’m happy with that!

Honestly, it’s hard not to be happy with that weekend, with almost 35,000 spectators cheering at the supercar final. They certainly got their money’s worth: the race was incredible, absolutely full of drama and, I have to say, quite dirty at times. Every car in the final came out with damage.

”The start at the final was incredible, an amazing start and we were right on the tail of leader Mattias Ekström. The battles going on around me were unbelievable, everybody was pushing like; everybody wanted to win this one. And nobody wanted to win more than me, but again there was the need to score points. I was carrying a puncture for the last two laps, which made things tough anyway, but then [Andreas] Bakkerud’s car came at me like a torpedo in the final corner; he seemed to come way off the line to hit me. It wasn’t nice. I missed second place and got third.

”But, you know, I’m OK with that. I understand. And now I really know what this sport can be like. I have put that move in my memory and, at the press conference, I told him (Bakkerud) he has to be watching his back now!

”There’s no better place to take revenge than on the track with a win. The good thing is we only have to wait five days before we start again with World RX of Belgium.

”The other good thing is Oliver’s results. He won his crosskart race – at least one member of the PSRX team got to celebrate on the top step of the podium! And Pernilla was really celebrating after Sweden beat Norway in the nation’s cup. Like last year, Höljes was a great race with an amazing atmosphere. But it was a tough weekend and I’m really happy that we have come away with more points and a step up in the championship standings.”

Solberg Jr said: ”It was great to race in the same meeting as dad. I’m sorry for him not getting the win, but my race was great – it was amazing driving in front of so many people!”

Solberg Sr endured mixed fortunes in his progress through the earlier rounds of the meeting. Fastest lap and a heat one win gave way to a puncture and ninth place in the second heat. This morning meant another heat win before stalling on the line for heat four. Starting from pole in the semi-final, Solberg was third at the finish, which meant the back row for the final. A sensational start rocketed him to second place before an… enthusiastic challenge from Andreas Bakkerud dropped him to third at the end of the day.

Solberg’s third podium finish from five World RX starts this season is enough to move him back to second in the championship, with just nine points between him and leader Reinis Nitiss.

As the PSRX team packs up and readies itself to head south from Scandinavia, bound for Belgium next weekend, the parties around the Höljes circuit are in full swing. More than 30,000 hangovers will begin in around 12 hours…

One thing we liked about Höljes:
That has to be the support – it was just incredible! The noise was epic.

One thing we didn’t like about Höljes:
Drivers using the ’in-off’ cornering technique: in to the corner off the side of the PSRX Citroen.

Final result:
1 Mattias Ekström 4m29.881s
2 Andreas Bakkerud 4m40.323s
3 Petter Solberg 4m41.007s
4 Reinis Nitiss 4m41.074s
5 Liam Doran 4m45.193s
6 Sebastian Eriksson 4m58.046s

Championship positions:
1 Reinis Nitiss 112pts
2 Petter Solberg 103pts
3 Andreas Bakkerud 99pts
4 Topi Heikkinen 88pts
5 Anton Marklund 64pts
6 Timur Timerzyanov 64pts

Next time out
Next time out is, again, next week. In just five days the team will be back on track at the Circuit Jules Tacheny in Mettet, Belgium. This will be the series’ first visit to Belgium and the home nation of the European Union is a welcome addition; Belgium produces 220,000 tonnes of chocolate every year and brews more than 800 varieties of beer…