Henning Solberg leads Rally Norway

"We won't be beaten by a Swede on home turf.  That would be totally
unacceptable!"

Henning Solberg was in superb humour when he came in for the last service in the Vikingskip in Hamar after the day's seven Special Stages in Rally Norway.  The Peugeot driver leads the Norwegian FIA WRC candidate event with 51 seconds on second placed Daniel Carlsson.

Henning Solberg and co-driver Cato Menkerud have had a very good day along the beautiful rally course of Hedmark (county) in Norway.  With Jens Stoltenberg and thousands of other rally fans looking on, Solberg has won six out of seven stages and crushed the opposition in one of his most important races of the season.

"It's been perfect all day.  We adjusted the diffs a bit after the second stage and that's actually the only thing we have done with the car," he said.

Henning Solberg and Daniel Carlsson have been in a class of their own today although the Norwegian is 51 seconds ahead of his Swedish neighbour. Eighteen year old Mads Østberg has done a sterling job to maintain third place but he is three minutes behind Carlsson and Solberg.

Rally Norway continues tomorrow with seven new Special Stages.

Rally Norway results after Leg 1 (7 of 14 Special Stages)
1. Henning Solberg, Peugeot, 1t 26min 10,5sec
2. Daniel Carlsson, Mitsubishi, +51,0sec
3. Mads Østberg, Subaru, +3min 9,3sec
4. Juha Salo, Mitsubishi, +3.09,7
5. Anders Grøndal, Subaru, +3.20,6
6. Patrik Flodin, Subaru, +3.39,4
7. Tord Linnerud, Peugeot, 3.52,7
8. Thomas Schie, Ford, +4.47,8
9. Trond Sveinsvoll, Ford, +5.11,1
10. Eivind Steffensen, Subaru, +8.05,6