Solberg was born in Askim and grew up in Spydeberg. His parents, Tove and Terje, were keen bilcross competitors and rallycross enthusiasts, and he helped rebuild competition cars on the family farm before he was old enough to drive. He won a nationwide RC car championship — the Norwegian Tamiya Cup — in 1987 at age 13.
Solberg entered his first bilcross in 1992, three days after his 18th birthday and one day after obtaining his driving licence. He became Norwegian champion in rallycross and hillclimb in both 1995 and 1996, winning 19 of 21 events in 1995 and 15 of 19 in 1996. In 1995 he also participated in his maiden rally, the Norwegian Rally Bjørkelangen, driving a Volvo 240 in the Volvo Original class. He became Norwegian Rally Champion in 1998. His older brother Henning Solberg won the Norwegian Rally Championship five times in a row between 1999 and 2003.
With the aid of compatriot John Haugland, Solberg attracted attention from WRC team bosses and agreed at the end of 1998 to drive as a junior pilot for the Ford Motor Company for three years. He debuted in the World Rally Championship in 1998 and was formally signed for 1999. At the Safari Rally in 1999, after Thomas Rådström was injured, Solberg was elevated to points-scorer for Ford and finished fifth, scoring both drivers' and manufacturers' points.
In 2000, Solberg left Ford's M-Sport outfit to sign with the Subaru World Rally Team, then led by Richard Burns and Juha Kankkunen. His first podium came at the Acropolis Rally in Greece in 2001. That year he voluntarily conceded places — dropping from 4th to 5th in Corsica — to assist Burns in winning the title.
In 2002, with Tommi Mäkinen as teammate following Burns' departure to Peugeot, Solberg won his first WRC event at Wales Rally GB. He finished runner-up to Marcus Grönholm that year.
In 2003, Solberg entered the final event — Wales Rally GB — with himself, Sébastien Loeb, and Burns all in title contention. Burns withdrew for health reasons; Solberg finished ahead of Loeb to claim his second Wales Rally GB win and his only World Rally Championship title, becoming the first Norwegian to win the drivers' world title.
In his 2004 title defence, winning five of sixteen events including a hat-trick of Wales Rally GB victories proved insufficient against a dominant Loeb. Three mid-season DNFs were decisive. He finished runner-up to Loeb again in 2005, winning two of the first three events — in Sweden and Mexico — before being overtaken. His final WRC victory came at the 2005 Wales Rally GB, contested under the shadow of the death of co-driver Michael Park, who crashed on day three while navigating for Markko Märtin. Loeb sacrificed his road victory to avoid celebrating simultaneously. Solberg finished the year second, pipping Grönholm on a tie break with 71 points.
From 2006 onwards results with the Subaru were increasingly patchy. His best campaign after 2005 was 2007, where he took third at the Acropolis Rally and finished fifth overall, but suffered repeated mechanical failures. In 2008, the new WRC2008 hatchback debuted at the Acropolis, where Solberg finished runner-up to Loeb — his only podium of the year. He ended sixth overall.
Subaru announced on 16 December 2008 that they would withdraw from the WRC, leaving Solberg and co-driver Phil Mills without a ride.
On 6 February 2009, Solberg officially founded the Petter Solberg World Rally Team (PSWRT), with himself driving and Mills as co-driver, running a 2006-spec Citroën Xsara WRC. The thirteen-member team included ex-SWRT members Ken Rees as team manager and François-Xavier "FX" Demaison as chief engineer. Solberg finished third at the Cyprus Rally and in Sardinia — the first true privateer in a privately run team on the podium since Malcolm Wilson in 1993. He ended 2009 fifth in the Drivers' Championship.
In 2010, Solberg purchased two 2009-spec Citroën C4 WRC cars. He took podiums at Mexico, Jordan, Turkey, and Bulgaria (the first rally with new co-driver Chris Patterson, after Mills' departure ending an unbroken 152-event, 11-year partnership in which they won 13 individual world rallies and the 2003 title). He finished second in Rally GB and third in the championship. In 2011 he competed in a Citroën DS3 WRC. In December 2011, Ford confirmed Solberg would return to the factory team in 2012, twelve years after his WRC debut with the same team. He claimed podiums at Monte Carlo, Mexico, and Portugal (promoted after Mikko Hirvonen was stripped of victory for a technical infringement), briefly reaching second in the standings.
In 2013, Solberg switched to rallycross, competing in all nine rounds of the FIA European Rallycross Championship with his own team based in Torsby, finishing eighth overall.
In 2014, driving the PSRX Citroën DS3 Supercar, Solberg became the inaugural FIA World Rallycross Championship winner with five race wins and nine podium finishes. In 2015, partnering with Liam Doran in the Solberg Doran Rallycross (SDRX) team, he successfully defended his title with another Citroën DS3, clinching it in the final round at Rosario, Argentina.
In 2016, Solberg continued with a privateer Citroën DS3, winning the opening round at Portugal and finishing four overall. In 2017, he teamed up with Volkswagen Motorsport to create PSRX Volkswagen Sweden, driving the Polo GTi RX. Teammate Johan Kristoffersson won the drivers' title; Solberg finished third. The team claimed the Teams' Championship. Solberg's final World RX win came at Lydden Hill in 2017. In 2018, driving the rebranded Polo R, the team retained the Teams' Championship in even more dominant fashion. Across 24 events in 2017 and 2018, PSRX won 19 of them. Solberg also made a brief WRC comeback at Rally Catalunya 2018, finishing third in the WRC2 category in the Volkswagen Polo R5.
Solberg retired from full-time motorsport at the end of 2018. His 2019 farewell tour included setting the fastest RX lap at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, setting the lap record at the Norges Råeste Bakkeløp, winning Gymkhana Grid at Warsaw in a Volkswagen Polo, and taking a final class win at the 2019 Wales Rally GB.
Solberg is the younger brother of Henning Solberg and is married to Pernilla Solberg (née Walfridsson). Their son, Oliver Solberg, also competes in the WRC. Pernilla is the daughter of Per-Inge "Pi" Walfridsson, a former Volvo factory driver and 1980 European Rallycross Champion. The family lives in Mitandersfors, Sweden. In 2022, the Solbergs won the Race of Champions Nations Cup for Team Norway. Post-driving career, Solberg was diagnosed with ADHD.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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