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Extra German asphalt for Østberg

Mads Østberg will tackle the German Championship Rallye Niedersachsen on 9 and 10 september in a bid to improve his asphalt driving performance before the next WRC round, Tour de Corse - Rallye de France, at the end of the month.

The M-Sport World Rally Team driver had a lacklustre run to sixth place at ADAC Rallye Deutschland last month, and has added this extra outing, in his own Ford Fiesta R5, to fill the gap left by Rally China - Beijing and to make up for the lack of a pre-event test for Corsica.

"Due to the cancellation of the China Rally, I have a little break in the World Cup program and I'll use the opportunity to prepare for the forthcoming asphalt events," said Østberg. "I do not know the rally, but see it as a new and exciting challenge."

After frustration at Rallye Deutschland, Østberg acknowledged that improvements needed to be made and he described the lack of a pre-event test for Corsica as 'not ideal.'"

"We need to do what we can between now and Corsica and try to be more competitive there," he said. "The general set up of the car is working quite well, it's more the details that need to come together - especially with the diff settings, which is what we worked on most in Germany.

"We found some things, but at the end they didn't work out so well, so we need to try and progress," he added.

Zdroj: wrc.com