Ostberg pleasantly surprised on S2000 debut

Mads Ostberg has admitted he surprised himself with how quickly he got to grips with the Ford Fiesta S2000 on the recent Rally Germany.

The Norwegian driver was regularly setting the Super 2000 pace on Rally Germany, his first round of the World Rally Championship in anything but a Subaru Impreza WRC. Ostberg is now looking forward to his next outing with the Ford on October’s Rally of France.

Ostberg made the best of starts to his first World Rally Championship event in a car without a turbo, by setting the fastest time of all S2000 cars on the second stage. Unfortunately for him, he slid off the road on the next test, dropping five minutes when - unbeknown to him - the electrical cut-off switch had been clipped by the branch of a tree.

Ostberg bounced back from that and made great strides with the new car. Having slipped to 54th overall, he raced back through the leaderboard to end the Trier-based event in 16th place.

He said: “The car is very different from what I have been used to, but I was really impressed. The chassis is great and suits me very well. For the power, you have to learn that you need to keep the revs high all of the time. Some times during the rally I was going up the gears too early, which meant I was using all of the power. But I soon learned about that. For me, I can’t wait to start the Rally de France now.”

Ostberg admitted the key for his switch to the Ford is to gain experience for next season.

“Obviously next year the regulations switch to 1.6-litre turbo and these chassis,” he said. “So this is the chance to get used to how the car feels. The engine will be different [next year], but it will be business as usual for me when we get a turbo back.”