After an almost perfect rally in Hallingdal in Norway, Mads Østberg had to see himself beaten by Andreas Mikkelsen. This year’s first round in the Norwegian Rally Championship was held in Hallingdal in Norway. Mads Østberg started first on the road something that may have been influential on the results.

– The roads were quite snowy which made it difficult for me to drive faster than I did. Mikkelsen started out as number seven and had a much better grip than me, Mads says.

Half way through the race Mikkelsen had a five seconds lead. On SS 4 Østberg had a spin and lost valuable seconds.
– We had good speed throughout the whole rally and fighted all the way to the end. Driving was perfect today, but I kept on losing time and couldn’t really do much about it, Østberg says.

Mountain Rally Norway was located in Gol with 81 kilometers of special stages. Østberg won this rally in 2008 and had a good feeling before start. The car, a Ford Focus RRC, had a perfect setup, the pace notes was good and so was the cooperation with his co-driver Jonas Andersson. But this Saturday Østberg and Andersson had to see themselves beaten by Mikkelsen with seven seconds.

Finishing the rally second Østberg was disappointed but still very pleased with the day.
– The rally was more or less perfect for us. We had good speed throughout the whole rally and were able to test out some things on the car, which was useful for us. But this time the start position made it very difficult for me to win.

The Norwegian Championship is important to drive for the duo Østberg and Andersson to keep up with the pace and get as much practice as possible. 9th of February the first World Rally Championship heads of in Sweden, which Mountain Rally Norway has been a good practice for.
– This is valuable testing before we go to Sweden and still there are two more rallies in Norway before we go there. All I need now is more seat time, Østberg says.