Mads Østberg enjoyed a steady Day 2 at the 2016 Dayinsure Wales Rally GB, despite his co-driver suffering from snakebite.
Østberg maintained his overnight seventh place, keeping his M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC well clear of the pitfalls that catch out a number of crews year-on-year.
Yet co-driver Ola Fløene had his own pitfall, he suffered a painful snakebite the day before and it impacted his Day 2 performance.
Suffering from a swelled up hand and illness, Fløene nevertheless navigated his compatriot through the challenging speed tests.
Østberg was keenly concerned with his co-driver’s condition and felt it impacted his performances in the stages.
“We had a bit of a strange morning with Ola not feeling 100 percent,” he said.
“He was acting very strange in the stages he struggled a lot. He was reading the notes very strangely and we are a team so then I struggled as well.
“It looks as though he has been bitten by a snake! I don’t know if that’s what it was but it certainly looks that way and he wasn’t feeling very well at all.
“At the Regroup I made him see the doctor and after some medicine and a bit of a break he was feeling much better which is the main thing.”
Despite this, the Norwegian pairing were on-pace with their nearest rivals Citroën’s Kris Meeke and Hyundai’s Dani Sordo and maintained their seventh position at the end of the day.
Yet he is nearly four minutes behind DMACK’s Ott Tänak, who continues to be the leading Fiesta RS WRC runner in second place.
Despite this, Østberg brushed off another tricky Wales Rally GB day.
“It’s been another typical day at Wales Rally GB with rain, mud and fog,” he said.
“ It looked really dry on the recce, but today it was completely different – full wet with full fog and very tricky conditions.
He goes into the final day, 39 seconds off sixth, but a recovering Jari-Matti Latvala is only +7.2 seconds further back in eighth.
