With a 10 minutes penalty caused by his retirement yesterday, Mads Østberg started day 3 of Rally Argentina in 11th position and finished the day in 7th position overall. As first car on the road today, Mads has been cleaning the road for the rest of the field, but still he has managed to set some very good stage times, including a fastest one on SS7 (39,16km).

- It has actually been a fantastic day, says Mads. – I have enjoyed driving and everything has been good. It was a bit challenging on the second run through the stages, as the lines were a bit all over and impossible to follow. Had to drive outside them, which is more slippery and you need to be careful to maintain the grip. It’s important now to finish and to secure the points, so will continue to not push much tomorrow and keep it steady in the middle of the road.

Laying 5th in the overall classification after 3 stages in Argentina, Mads and Jonas hits a rock on SS4 and is forced to an early retirement from the day.

- 12 km before the finish line we hit a rock in a right hander, Mads explains. – The impact caused a damage to the drive shaft and also a bolt that attaches the steering arm came loose. We were unable to continue. After having struggled with the handling through the morning loop of stages, I was happy to see that the changes we did during service worked and the car felt really good. Hitting that rock was not part of my plan, but unfortunately these things happen and this time it was our misfortune.

Qatar M-Sport will be looking to translate their pace into a strong result next week as the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) ventures to the fifth round of the season at the Philips Rally Argentina. Leading the team’s voyage to South America, youngsters Mads Østberg, Evgeny Novikov and Thierry Neuville will be hoping their speed pays dividends.

On an eventful final day at the 2013 Vodafone Rally de Portugal, Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team’s Evgeny Novikov and Qatar World Rally Team’s Nasser Al-Attiyah led the way for the squad as they brought their Ford Fiesta RS WRCs home in fourth and fifth places respectively.