Østberg happy with Corsica warm-up
Mads Østberg declared himself pleased following two days of asphalt practice in Germany at the weekend ahead of the Tour de Corse - Rally de France (29 September - 2 October).
He finished second at ADAC Rallye Niedersachsen in a Ford Fiesta R5 run by father Morten’s Adapta Motorsport team. He was 34.5sec behind Fabian Kreim’s Skoda Fabia R5 after 13 speed tests covering 125.67km in the Lower Saxony region of north-west Germany.
“We went to the rally with specific plans to practice several aspects to improve my asphalt driving. I think we got very good results. It’s mentally much easier to practice new things in rallies that don’t count than when battling for world championship points,” said Østberg.
“There will always be some trial and error when new things are tried and it’s not so easy when you’re driving flat out. We’re very happy with what we got out of this weekend.”
Østberg’s Fiesta was geared for a top speed of 178kph compared to more than 200kph for his rivals, and although that cost time on special stages which featured many long straights and square corners, it had no bearing on his aim for the weekend.
He placed people in the stages to provide feedback on his driving style in a bid to improve on sixth at last month’s asphalt ADAC Rallye Deutschland.
“We made good progress in the braking areas and my speed out of corners which we’ll take forward to the Tour de Corse with the goal of increasing our pace,” he added.
