SS21 : Ostberg narrows gap to Hirvonen

Mads Ostberg has narrowed Mikko Hirvonen’s overall lead of Rally Sweden to 4.9s with one stage of the world championship season-opener remaining.

Ostberg completed the penultimate test with a time of 12m15.5s, which was marginally slower than the time recorded by stage winner Jari-Matti Latvala. Crucially, however, it was more than four seconds faster than Hirvonen managed.

“It’s going well for us but I didn’t want to risk anything,” said M-Sport Stobart driver Ostberg. “I wanted to push to catch Mikko but I don’t want to destroy the result either. Mikko seemed to go very well as well and it’s not easy to catch him. I’m very happy with my driving.”

Hirvonen added: “It’s going to be close. I tried to stay in a clean line all the time and even then I hit the snow bank twice. I had to be careful.”

Latvala has now moved ahead of Citroen’s Sebastien Ogier into third overall. However, the Finn reported a possible problem with his Fiesta’s powersteering after completing the stage.

“It went quite well,” he said. “I was trying too hard and going sideways into the snow bank too much at the beginning of the stage so I had to change my driving. I had a feeling the powersteering was getting harder so I hope there is no leak in the rack.”

Ogier reported hitting a snow bank during the stage and has dropped behind Petter Solberg into fifth overall as a result: “It was impossible to get grip with the rear of the car,” said Ogier. “Then I hit a snow bank and put snow into the air filter and now I have no power.”

Solberg said: ‘“I tried but I’m struggling this afternoon after changing the dampers.”

Standings after SS21: