They may be termed “co-drivers” but rally navigators rarely get to drive the cars and never on special stages. Unless you’re Chris Patterson, that is! In a bizarre ending to the Swedish Rally, opening round of the 2011 World championship, Patterson handed his pace-notes to Petter Solberg and took the wheel of their Citroen DS3 for the final stage - and kept it on track to finish in fifth place. It was the final twist to a topsy-turvy event for the pair. For most of the way they were the top Citroen crew as the new generation of 1600cc tubocharged cars made their debut but twice they incurred road penalties, costing them 20 seconds and possibly the lead. The second 10 second penalty came when they arrived one minute late for the start of the 10th stage on Friday after former World champion Solberg had been stopped by police for speeding on a public road section. IOL mot pic feb15 Pattersson Sweden DS3 1 Under Swedish law his driving licence was revoked after 48 hours, meaning he was barred from driving on the final televised “Power Stage” on Sunday afternoon. So Patterson took over and, despite never having driven the little Citroen before, he completed the stage, dropping only one place to former Junior World champion Sebastien Ogier. He said afterwards: “We laughed the whole way through. “Road safety is very important and we have to abide by the rules. Petter was unfortunately speeding and paid the price.” But at the top of the leaderboard it was first blood to Ford in the battle of the new breed of cars. Having played second fiddle to Citroen for much of the past seven years, Ford scored a clean sweep of the podium places on Rally Sweden with its all-new Fiesta WRC. Victory went to Mikko Hirvonen with fellow Finn Jari Matti Latvala third, the two Ford factory drivers split by Norwegian Mads Ostberg in his privateer Fiesta. Citroen was relegated to fourth (Ogier), fifth (Solberg) and seven-times World champion Sebastien Loeb sixth. - Belfast Telegraph
http://www.iol.co.za/motoring/motorsport/solberg-s-navigator-forced-to-drive-1.1026506
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6-UUkdQ3UA
