2019 Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 (Petter Solberg / Phil Mills)

            The 2019 Rally GB saw the end of an era with 2003 World Rally Champion Petter Solberg ending his front-line rallying career with one final attempt at the event he won in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

To mark the occasion his former championship-winning co-driver Phil Mills came out of retirement the join the Norwegian in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, competing in the WRC-2 catergory for production-based cars.

The ceremonial start of the rally was held at the Pier Head in Liverpool. I got down there very early before a single car had even arrived to try and get a good vantage point for the event and it paid off handsomely.

One of the early arrivals was Petter Solberg himself, here passing the Mersey Ferries terminal building on the way to what would be a rather crowded, not to mention expensive, car park just an hour later.

As a bonus I managed to get the re-united former champions to sign my 2003 yearbook. Only took me 16 years for the opportunity!

Later on that evening Solberg showed there was still life in the old dog yet by winning the first stage of the rally at Oulton Park outright, ahead of the hoard of World Rally Cars, to lead the event overnight.

The quicker cars soon overhauled him the following day but he drove steadily to finish the event second in class and tenth overall to clinch the final championship point on offer and sign off in style.

Taken in: UK / England / Liverpool (show map)

Taken on: October 3, 2019

Tags:

WRC

World Rally Championship

Petter Solberg

Phil Mills

Wales Rally GB

H-VW-352

Liverpool

Merseyside « less

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Camera: Canon PowerShot SX400 IS, f/5.0, 1/1000 sec, 10.3mm, ISO 200 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon PowerShot SX400 IS
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1000)
Focal Length:	10.3mm
ISO:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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