After his blistering pace on the second day of the FX Pro Rally Cyprus Petter Solberg and Phil Mills kept up the preasure on Citroen driver Danni Sordo in the challenging for third place.

In his Citroen Xsara Petter overhalled Sordo on the final day and managed to hold on to third place to claim his first podium fo the new team.

This is unbelievable! I cannot describe the feeling I had when I was standing on the podium today. I mean, third place with a private team in a private car!

The guys in the team are so good, they have been working flat out to get the car ready for the rally, and of course during the rally. They all are amazing. And also a big thanks you to all my sponsors and Citroen. Notting of this would be possible without you!

After a thrilling weekend, Petter and Phil could drive up on the podium to receive their 3rd place award at Cyprus. It all started with some good splits on Friday, and continued with two knock-out stage wins on Saturday afternoon.

They started Sunday in fourth position, but already on the first stage they passed Sordo on the final classification and came third. The last time someone made it to the podium as a privateer with his own car, was when Malcolm Wilson did it in 1993.

The Petter Solberg World Rally Team was also honored with ”The Abu Dhabi Spirit of the Rally Award” for its good work at Cyprus.

The winner of Rally Cyprus is Sebastien Loeb, who today took his 50 WRC win. Mikko Hirvonen ended second. Henning Solberg had to retire from the rally on Friday, after a collision on the roadsection. He did compete under SuperRally regulations Saturday and Sunday.

Final Leaderboard
1. S Loeb/D Elena (FRA)                         Citroën C4               4h50m34.7s
2. M Hirvonen/J Lehtinen (FIN)                 Ford Focus RS          +27.2s
3. P Solberg/P Mills (NOR)                       Citroën Xsara           +1m49.4s
4. D Sordo/M Marti (ESP)                        Citroën C4               +2m26.3s
5. M Wilson/S Martin (GB)                       Ford Focus RS          +6m41.0s
6. C Rautenbach/D Barritt (ZW)                Citroën C4               +11m11.9s
7. F Villagra/J Perez Companc (ARG)       Ford Focus RS         +13m18.5s
8. K Al Qassimi/M Orr (UAE)                    Ford Focus RS          +13m44.1s
9. P Sandell/E Axelsson (SWE)                 Skoda Fabia            +19.36.6
10. A Arujo/R Miguel (POR)                       Mitusbishi Lancer      +19.54.9