Abu Dhabi: Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally team driver Mads Ostberg clinched third place in Rally Finland on Sunday to climb to third place overall in the World Rally Championship standings.
The Norwegian’s podium finish took him to 84 points for the season and saw the Abu Dhabi team take second place in the manufacturers’ championship with 141 points.
Sunday’s final day of the WRC’s eighth round consisted of a single stage repeated twice. Ostberg was not really going flat-out in the final stages as he was well set in third place and was focused on safely getting the car home.
“Finland was an excellent rally for me. I was focused on cleanly getting the car through to the end,” he said.
“We demonstrated a persistent pace in pursuing the leaders, keeping them under pressure. We also had to contend with the rain and I had quite a few moments on the sections where the grip levels were inconsistent.
“It’s so nice to be at the end now, I enjoyed the whole rally. It feels good to be back and fighting after Poland — I’m really happy to be back on the podium. I hope we can continue to prepare for the other rallies like this.”
Kris Meeke, who crashed out of the main event on Saturday, was back under Rally 2 regulations and he posted some brilliant times. The Briton gained a single point at the end of the rally for being the third fastest driver in the power stage.
“I always knew the pace was there, I just need an extra half a per cent to keep it together. When that happens, it will be good,” he said.
Fellow Abu Dhabi team driver Shaikh Khalid Bin Faisal Al Qasimi took plenty of experience from the event and he said: “We have learned a lot from the 20 super fast stages we passed through. Our pace notes were not really perfect and sometimes were not matching the speed of the stage. I lifted up my pace at the final day by 20 per cent to see where that would take us, but all in all it was a fantastic experience.”
In the Junior WRC, Abu Dhabi Racing’s Mohammad Al Mutaiwe’e completed the rally with minor mistakes in pace notes, moving up to sixth place for the second Rally in a row.
On Saturday, Ostberg benefited from Meeke’s misfortune to climb to take over his third place.
Meeke had a brilliant start on day three, posting some excellent times to put pressure on leader Jari-Matti Latvala. The Briton held third comfortably ahead of Ostberg until the first 1.4km of special stage 16, when he slid off the wet road and hit a tree, the accident breaking the front left suspension of his DS3 WRC.
The next WRC event is Rally Deutschland from August 20 to 23.
