Østberg ready for the “Polish Grand Prix”
Mads Østberg and codriver Ole Fløene (driving a Ford Fiesta WRC) are ready for one of the seasons fastest events when they start Rally Poland coming Thursday.
The rally is one of the world’s oldest with history dating back to 1921. Today it ranks as one of the fastest together with Finland.
“I am looking forward to proving that I can master the specialities of this rally” says Mads Østberg. “We have run three very technical and rough gravel events in a row, but in Poland it all changes. It’s a gravel rally ok, but more like Finland with superfast stages. Actually, in some parts it is faster than Finland. The last two years I have struggled a bit in this rally, but I have a positive feeling now after our test last Sunday, The test brought showed good progress, but the day ended in a small off. Luckily without too much damage to the Fiesta.
“Normally it’s not my habit to go off the road, but this time we found the limit. It was nothing to dramatic, but created some extra work for my team. Anyway, I felt the test gave us a good base set-up for these fast roads and I will use shakedown on Thursday to fine tune a bit.”
Mads and his privateer team has proven to be highly competitive this year. In all four rallies they have entered, Mads has been fighting for top positions in the first proper day of the events. But then they have been struck with technical issues and punctures denying them strong results.
“We have to put together a whole rally. The speed is definitely there and the team is working in a very dedicated style. My goal now is to show that I can be on the top throughout an event, and it can certainly happen in Poland.” says Mads.
“It’s a special event with very high speeds and extremely deep ruts the second time through the stages. I need to be confident all the way through, and if I can manage that I will be able to collect some very good WRC points. That’s all I`m willing to tell before the rally starts”
Rally Poland is based in the town of Mikołajki in the middle of the Masurian Lake District. The event starts Thursday with a superspecial stage in Mikołajki, before the crews will tackle a further nine stages totalling 116 km during the Friday.
Saturday is the longest and hardest day with nine stages totalling 150 kms close to the Russian enclave Kaliningrad.
As usual the Sunday is a short day, with 60 kms on four stages. The last 18 km stage is also the Power Stage, before the rally ends in Mikołajki at 14.30 on Sunday.
