Mads Ostberg described his retirement from second place in Rally Mexico this morning as the biggest disappointment of his career.
The Norwegian stopped on the road section after the opening stage with a broken alternator on his Ford Fiesta RS. He claimed four stage wins yesterday and was the only driver capable of matching leader Sebastien Ogier.
“It’s the biggest disappointment I’ve ever had in rallying,” he said. “I’ve been disappointed previously but never this bad. It’s very frustrating after fighting for a good result.
“I can’t believe it’s the third rally in a row where we’ve had technical issues and I’m not happy with that. I hope this will change now,” he added.
In the opening Ibarrilla stage, Ostberg’s Fiesta suffered a leak in a pipe connected to the clutch slave cylinder.
“The pedal wasn’t working but we managed OK,” he said. “There were a few places where you need a clutch and I couldn’t use it, so it wasn’t perfect. When I came to the end of the stage I had to put the car into neutral and stop it, and then restart it to be able to go,” he said.
“On the road section I had an alarm on my screen for the alternator. Because of the clutch problem, we had to restart the car each time we stopped. But the alternator wasn’t charging and it took about five minutes to empty the battery before the car stopped,” he added.
Ostberg was so frustrated that he kicked the Fiesta RS, injuring his right foot.
“When I retired I was very angry so I kicked the car. The pain is quite big. We will work on that this afternoon and hopefully the foot should be OK to restart tomorrow,” he added.