Q&A with Mads Ostberg

Mads Ostberg starts the final day of RallyRACC-Rally de Espana in fifth overall following a troubled Saturday when he slipped back from first place on the FIA World Rally Championship qualifier. He told WRC.com what went wrong.

Things were looking so good at the start of Saturday but it proved to be a tough day. What happened?

“I don’t really know what the problems were but it’s been a really bad afternoon, I’ve tried everything to not lose time but we’ve been struggling so much. I don’t think I forget how to drive in a couple of hours so it’s not me, that’s for sure.”

What was the car doing out there?

“The car was understeering a lot and I couldn’t push at all. We worked with the car all afternoon but the base of the car was far too soft and we have been struggling a lot with that. I’ve been trying to push and it’s not been working. On the long stage when the car is not working it starts to oversteer and you overheat the tyres very quickly and 44 kilometres feels quite long.”

How were you trying to rectify the problems?

“We tried to do damper clicks, change ride heights but nothing really helped. We did something with the pre-load on the front differential as well.”

And in service on Saturday night?

“We are changing a lot of things on the car because it was feeling very strange and I can’t pick on one thing. Many things are working against each other. We will change all the suspension and check the diffs. We will obviously change what needs to be changed to make sure there are no problems.”

The feeling after day two must be quite a contrast after the high of Friday night?

“It’s not quite a contrast, it’s the world’s biggest contrast. Friday was, of course, a good day but I didn’t feel very emotional about it, it was just a day on a rally and I was leading. I didn’t feel like I was in heaven. Obviously I am very disappointed now because I see the rally as a whole and it’s looking more difficult now.”

Can you still finish third in the championship?

“It’s definitely looking difficult but it’s quite a long day on Sunday and everything is possible. We just have to carry on all the way to the end. Ott [Tanak] has done a really good day and Mikko is 17 seconds ahead. We just have to push to try to beat them and we will push like hell.”

How hard will you push?

“I want to get to the end and I don’t want to spend a lot of money crashing the car at the end of the season. I want to buy Christmas presents in one month so I need to have some money left.”

There’s talk of rain on Sunday. What would be your preference?

“Rain because we have a good set-up for rain and we don’t have a good one for the dry.”