Stobart kick off Rally Finland with solid performance

After the opening three stages of Neste Oil Rally Finland, Mads Østberg leads the way for the M-Sport Stobart Ford World Rally Team and lies eighth in a Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

With only 25.8 seconds separating the top ten drivers and two full days remaining, Østberg is looking to make the most of his good road position tomorrow in order to challenge the WRC front-runners.

Britain’s Matthew Wilson had a strong start to the eighth round of the WRC by posting a third-fastest stage time during the day’s penultimate 11.79 km speed test. The result marks Wilson and co-driver Scott Martin’s best stage time of the season so far.

Team-mate Henning Solberg and co-driver Ilka Minor had no problems in the team’s other Fiesta RS WRC and the duo currently lie 5.7 seconds adrift of tenth place.

Evgeny Novikov reported difficulties adjusting to the fast Finnish stages and adopted a cautious driving approach as a result. The Russian holds 15th overnight.

Mads Østberg said:
“The car is feeling very good but I just need to improve my driving. We wanted to push but I couldn’t quite find a good rhythm on the first stage as I felt like the grip was constantly changing. If I had been driving like I was in Estonia, then I would have done a lot better on these stages today but it has not been bad. Now I want to have a good sleep and concentrate on what will be a really long day tomorrow.”

Henning Solberg said:
“Everything has been OK so far. The stages tomorrow will be quicker – in some places they are very narrow. They flow better and, for sure, I think the speeds will be some of the quickest we have reached this year. I just need to find the right balance and know when to push. We’ve got a good road position tomorrow and I want to use this to our advantage.”

Matthew Wilson said:
“The first stage had some very loose gravel and we made a small mistake when we ran really wide – we probably lost about five seconds. The car has been fine – we’ll soften the rear and raise the ride height but apart from that I don’t think we’ll make any other changes. Tomorrow is going to be interesting – it’s definitely going to be difficult for those that are running first, especially if it stays dry overnight like it is supposed to.”

Evgeny Novikov said:
“Finland has been very difficult for me so far – the roads are very fast so I am driving carefully. I want to get through this rally, double check my pacenotes and be here at the end. This is the most important thing. I don’t know what to expect from tomorrow, I think it will also be difficult but now I want to get some sleep and be ready for the next day.”