Henning Solberg

Henning Solberg

Solberg at the Rally of New Zealand 2008
Personal information
Nationality	Norwegian
Born	8 January 1973 (1973-01-08)
World Rally Championship record
Active years	1998–present
Teams	Bozian Racing, Ford, OMV Peugeot Norway, Stobart Ford, Munchi's Ford
Rallies	108
Championships	0
Rally wins	0
Podiums	6
Stage wins	31
Total points	230
First rally	1998 Swedish Rally

Henning Solberg (born 8 January 1973) is a Norwegian rally driver. Together with co-driver Ilka Minor, he currently competes in the World Rally Championship (WRC) with Stobart M-Sport Ford. Solberg is the older brother of the 2003 world champion Petter Solberg.

Career

Solberg (Group N Ford Escort RS Cosworth) pictured during the 1995 Austrian Rallycross EC round.

Solberg driving a Peugeot 206 WRC at the 2004 Rally Finland.

Henning Solberg was born in Askim. Like his younger brother Petter, Henning started his career as a driver in bilcross (Norwegian low-budget rallycross similar to Swedish folkrace and Finnish jokamiehenluokka) and rallycross events, and switched completely to rallying in the mid 1990s. Between 1999 and 2003, he became the Norwegian Rally Champion for five years in a row.

After several events as a privateer in the WRC, Solberg got a contract with Bozian Racing for the 2004 season. At his first event with the Peugeot 206 WRC, the 2004 Swedish Rally, Solberg took his first WRC points by driving to sixth place. This remained his best result and only points-finish of the season.

For the 2005 season, Solberg was signed by the BP Ford World Rally Team, Ford's factory WRC team. He competed in seven rounds alongside Ford's main drivers Toni Gardemeister and Roman Kresta. His best result came at the Cyprus Rally, where he beat team-mates Gardemeister and Kresta to the fourth place. With nine points, Solberg finished 14th in the drivers' world championship.

OMV Peugeot Norway WRT (2006)

Solberg driving Peugeot 307 WRC at 2006 Cyprus Rally

Solberg driving Peugeot 307 WRC at 2006 Cyprus Rally

In 2006, Solberg partnered Manfred Stohl at the OMV Peugeot Norway W.R.T., and drove the Peugeot 307 WRC in 12 of the 16 WRC rounds plus the non-WRC event Rally Norway. He achieved his first ever podium finish coming in third in the Rally of Turkey. With six other points-scoring positions to his name, he finished eighth in the drivers' standings. Solberg also appeared in an edition of the BBC show Top Gear, where he rallied a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution in a downhill snow track in a race against the Norwegian bobsleigh team at Lillehammer. The Lillehammer Olympic Bobsleigh and Luge Track is 1365 meters long with 16 turns and an 8.5% average grade and Solberg's route was equally challenging. With Top Gear presenter James May as his "co-driver," Solberg made it 1:02:24 in the Evo while the bobsled (with presenter Richard Hammond in it) beat Solberg with a time of 59:68.

Stobart Ford (2007-2011)

Solberg driving a Ford Focus RS WRC 06 at the 2007 Rally GB.

Solberg at the 2008 Rallye Deutschland.

For 2007, Solberg was given a full-time drive with the Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team. He achieved his second podium finish in the World Rally Championship by driving his Ford Focus RS WRC 06 to third place at his home event, the 2007 Rally Norway, when the rally was part of the WRC calendar for the first time. He later took his career third podium finish at the 2007 Rally Japan, and finished sixth in the drivers' championship, ahead of Subaru's Chris Atkinson and his young team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala.

Solberg retained his place at the Stobart team for the 2008 season. In Sweden he was on course for a podium finish before a puncture and a crash on the second day put him out of the points. For México Solberg was nominated to score points for the Munchi's team. He achieved a fifth place finish despite suffering two punctures. In the series' first-ever Jordan Rally, he recorded his best result of the season by finishing fourth. After five more points-scoring finishes were followed by five rallies with no points, Solberg finished eighth overall in the drivers' standings. At the 2008 Mountain Rally Norway, the first round in the 2008 Norwegian Rally Championship, Henning took first in his class driving a Ford Fiesta ST N3.

Solberg driving a Ford Focus RS WRC 08 at the 2009 Rally GB.

In 2009, Solberg had his career-best start to the season. He drove his Focus RS WRC 08 to fourth place both in the season-opening Rally Ireland and the following Rally Norway. After a road accident ended his chances in Cyprus, he finished fifth in Portugal and took his career fourth podium place in Argentina, behind the Citroën duo Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo. He achieved another podium in Poland.

In 2010 Solberg was driving Ford Focus RS WRC 08 at first 6 events but at 2010 Rally Bulgaria drove Ford Fiesta S2000. At 2010 Rally Finland, 2010 Rallye Dutchland and 2010 Rally Japan he drove Ford Focus WRCagain. At last two rallies he drove Ford Fiesta S2000. His co-driver is Ilka Minor, but during her injury was his co-driver Stéphane Prévot. Every time Solberg participated in WRC with S2000 car he scored points and beat few WRC drivers.

Henning Solberg at 2010 Rally Finland

Henning Solberg at 2010 Rally Bulgaria

Go Fast Engery World Rally Team (2012)

Henning Solberg will compete for the privitier Go Fast Energy World Rally Team along with Mathew Wilson in the 2012 season.

WRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
1998	Shell Norge	Toyota Celica GT-Four	MON	SWE 12	KEN	POR	ESP	FRA	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	ITA	AUS	GBR				NC	0
1999	Henning Solberg	Ford Escort WRC	MON	SWE	KEN	POR	ESP	FRA	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	CHN	ITA	AUS	GBR Ret			NC	0
2000	Henning Solberg	Ford Escort WRC	MON	SWE Ret	KEN	POR Ret	ESP	ARG	GRE	NZL									NC	0
		Toyota Corolla WRC									FIN Ret	CYP	FRA	ITA	AUS	GBR 14
2001	Henning Solberg	Toyota Corolla WRC	MON	SWE Ret	POR Ret	ESP	ARG	CYP	GRE	KEN	FIN Ret	NZL	ITA	FRA	AUS				NC	0
		Subaru Impreza WRC														GBR 13
2002	Henning Solberg	Toyota Corolla WRC	MON	SWE 13	FRA	ESP	CYP	ARG	GRE	KEN	FIN Ret	GER	ITA	NZL	AUS	GBR			NC	0
2003	Henning Solberg	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI	MON	SWE Ret	TUR	NZL	ARG	GRE	CYP	GER	FIN Ret	AUS	ITA	FRA	ESP	GBR			NC	0
2004	Bozian Racing	Peugeot 206 WRC	MON	SWE 6	MEX	NZL Ret	CYP Ret	GRE	TUR Ret	ARG	FIN 10	GER	JPN	GBR 11	ITA Ret	FRA	ESP	AUS	19th	3
2005	BP Ford World Rally Team	Ford Focus RS WRC 04	MON	SWE 5	MEX	NZL	ITA 15	CYP 4	TUR 11	GRE Ret	ARG	FIN 9	GER	GBR 10	JPN	FRA	ESP	AUS	14th	9
2006	OMV Peugeot Norway	Peugeot 307 WRC	MON Ret	SWE 8	MEX 5	ESP	FRA	ARG 7	ITA Ret	GRE 5	GER	FIN 4	JPN	CYP 6	TUR 3	AUS Ret	NZL 12	GBR 11	8th	25
2007	Stobart M-Sport Ford Rally Team	Ford Focus RS WRC 06	MON 14	SWE 4	NOR 3	MEX 9	POR 11	ARG 5	ITA 4	GRE 5	FIN 5	GER 13	NZL 9	ESP 10	FRA 9	JPN 3	IRE 16	GBR 15	6th	34
2008	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	Ford Focus RS WRC 07	MON 9	SWE 13		ARG Ret	JOR 4		GRE 8	TUR 5	FIN 5	GER 7			FRA 15		GBR Ret		8th	22
	Munchi's Ford World Rally Team				MEX 5			ITA 7					NZL 9	ESP 11		JPN Ret
2009	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	IRE 4	NOR 4	CYP 18	POR 5	ARG 3	ITA 8	GRE 14	POL 3	FIN 30	AUS 7	ESP 9	GBR 5					6th	33
2010	Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team	Ford Focus RS WRC 08	SWE 6	MEX 6	JOR 9	TUR 25	NZL 7	POR Ret		FIN Ret	GER 37	JPN 7			GBR 6				8th	45
		Ford Fiesta S2000							BUL 10				FRA 9	ESP 8
2011	M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	SWE Ret	MEX 6	POR 9	JOR 14	ITA Ret	ARG DNS	GRE 5	FIN 7	GER 7	AUS 14	FRA 6	ESP 8	GBR 3				9th	59
2012	Go Fast Energy World Rally Team	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	MON 13	SWE 7	MEX	POR	ARG	GRE	NZL	FIN	GER	GBR	FRA	ITA	ESP				10th*	6*

* Season in progress.

External links

• Henning Solberg’s website (Norwegian only)
• RallyBase stat page
• WRC Archive stat page
• Solberg at the Stobart Motorsport team page