Ostberg shrugs off co-driver error

Mads Ostberg is refusing to let an oversight from his co-driver Jonas Andersson cloud an otherwise excellent start to Rally Mexico.

After fives stages, the Citroen DS3 driver leads by 3.3sec from Sebastien Ogier, but could have been almost seven seconds ahead were it not for a preparation mistake before the 2.6km Gto Bicentenario street stage (SS5).

Andersson forgot to remove a radiator shield from the front of the DS3, a device used on road sections to keep the engine temperature up.

“He told me just 30 seconds before the start,” Ostberg told wrc.com. “I didn’t know if I could push, if the engine would overheat or not, so I had to take it carefully so I didn’t destroy anything. We lost a lot of time.”

But while Ostberg’s frustration was clear at the stage end, he was more philosophical when he arrived back in Leon for the midday service.

“You have to put it behind you straight away. I had to try not to focus on it in the stage and just drive as best I could. It’s difficult when you get a message like that just before the start and you know it’s not so good.

"Okay, it cost us some seconds but nothing more than that. It’s a small thing and now we have the nice stages again and I’m looking forward to that.”

Asked whether he had patched things up with his co-driver, Mads nodded: “I called him f*****r one time, and that’s it.”