M-Sport World Rally Team’s Mads Ostberg secured a comfortable fifth place at 2016 RallyRACC – Rally de Espana, finishing 20 seconds shy of the podium. The result is a great boost to the Norwegian, who has changed his approach to tarmac rallies and it appears to be paying off.
Using a much more precise and smoother style Ostberg’s pace on the black stuff improved throughout the event. Despite enduring the worst of the conditions through the opening gravel stages, Ostberg was happy with his progress on Tarmac.
“It’s really satisfying to see that this new strategy is starting to pay off,” he said. “There has been a lot of work over the last two rallies – and that will continue – but it’s always nice to see everything come together in a single stage.
“We experienced that on the last stage [SS19] and I was quite happy that we managed to do it. It still wasn’t a 100 percent perfect stage, but it’s certainly getting there. I’ll have to see the report from my coach before I can say that it was very good, but it felt good and it’s almost a shame that we’re heading back to gravel now!”
However, he isn’t too disappointed as the next round is Wales Rally GB, one of his favorite events.
“I am definitely looking forward to. It’s a little bit earlier this year and we might see a dry event which would be fantastic! But if it’s wet I don’t mind either as I’m looking forward to it a lot.”
Team Principal, Malcolm Wilson OBE added, “A solid result from Mads this weekend means that we’re back into the top-three in the manufacturers’ championship which is really important.”
Wales Rally GB is on the 27-30 October.
