Mads Østberg wants to ward off bad luck

We knew he was very consistent, and since the start of the season he has also shown to be extremely fast. He is perhaps the only one to have sometimes managed to follow the frantic pace of the Polo R as much as possible. WRC de Sébastien Ogier. Unfortunately, since the start of the season, Mads Østberg has not enjoyed great success. This weekend in Argentina, the Norwegian will aim to finish in the top three, in order to score big points in the championship. Fourth overall after four rounds, he is 11 points behind Loeb, 16 on Hirvonen and…70 on Ogier.

Østberg, however, has several reasons to approach this meeting with a certain optimism. First of all, during his only two participations in this event, he shone, finishing fifth in 2011 before reaching the third step of the podium last year. “Our goal will be to fight for the podium, underlines the main interested party, who will be co-piloted as usual by Jonas Andersson. Given how the season has gone so far, it is important for us to score big points and make sure we are still in the game. Obviously we always want to win rallies, and Argentina is usually a successful event for us. So we will attack hard, but the most important thing will be to finish well. »

But the spearhead of Malcolm Wison’s team is not expecting an easy game. “Argentina is a rally complicated. The weather there is changeable. You can have sun in the plains and when you go up into the mountains, the risk of rain and fog is high. You must therefore be able to adapt your driving style to all conditions. But one of the biggest difficulties are the long stages. Generally, we are used to having a few long stages interspersed with short ones. But on this event, they are almost all long. Which makes it a real rally ofEndurance."

With such conditions and competition reinforced by the return of Sébastien Loeb, it is certain that a podium would already be an excellent result for the Norwegian hope. And it would be more than deserved given the efforts made since the start of the year.