Mads Ostberg’s goal is second place at the end of the year, so with that in mind, he’ll be competing this weekend in the uncharted Barum Rally.
Mads Östberg has already escaped becoming European champion this year. And so the Norwegian Citroën C3 Rally2 competitor, reading his itinerary Patrick Barth, has his sights set on second place.
But first, he has to deal with the challenges of the Zlin-based pool Barum, which he will meet for the first time at the weekend.
“This race is new to me, so there will be a bit of discovery again, so to speak, but obviously we prepared from the videos and what we saw on the inside camera footage,” the Norwegian explained. “Before Baroom, we will also have a test in Hungary, so hopefully this will also help a little bit with the preparation.”
Ostberg took advantage of ERC rules, which allow teams to forgo one of eight possible races during the season, to miss last month’s Rally di Roma Capitale. The 35-year-old contestant hopes his absence will help.
“We felt we had to skip Roma to prepare better,” Ostberg said. “It gave us the opportunity to completely rebuild the car, recharge a bit and focus on the last two rallies, which we already have experience from last year’s Hungarian Rally. Although Barome is not Hungary, it’s very similar to the races there, so we feel we have a good setup.” And I feel at home on the stages. But of course we have to explore the height, so we’re concentrating on trying to be fast.”
The WRC title winner continued: “Obviously the championship is pretty much decided, but we’re still fighting for second place and that’s what we’re focused on at the moment. Hayden Paddon has been very strong all year and he deserves it [a címet]And I am happy to congratulate him after the end of the week. But we are focused now on the silver, on having a good race and trying to improve our settings, our tempo and our pace and we’ll see how it goes.”
