Ostberg: pace note was wrong

Mads Ostberg has blamed an incorrect pace note for the crash that cost him second place in Mexico today.

The Norwegian damaged his Citroen DS3 WRC when he slid wide and collided with a bank in this morning’s second stage, the 30.33km Ibarrilla.

“Basically I went too fast into a corner,” Ostberg told wrc.com. “My pace note was not correct. To be honest I don’t know how I could have missed that. I have done the stage quite a few times so it should have been corrected, but the pace note was too hard.”

“I tried, but I understood immediately when I came over the crest that it wouldn’t go, and we destroyed the rear upright. We tried to fix it with a ratchet strap but it couldn’t hold and it snapped just before the stage. We fixed it again but we were over the time limit. So no chance to start the stage.”

Mads exit today echoed his retirement here in 2013. In both cases he was in second place, chasing rally leader Sebastien Ogier, when he damaged his car on the Ibarrilla stage and later retired on the road section to Otates.

In 2013 it was a broken alternator that finally brought him to a halt. Luckily for Mads, the déjà vu stopped there. In 2013 he was so angry at his retirement that he kicked his car and injured his foot.