Mads Ostberg made his way to the front of the pack on Day 2 of Rally Sweden for Citroen Team Abu Dhabi late Friday night, finishing the second day in third overall.
Ostberg, of Norway, was joined in the top-10 by Abu Dhabi Racing teammate Kris Meeke of Great Britain in sixth. Sheikh Khalid Al Qassimi, chairman of Abu Dhabi Racing, ended the day in 18th.
Ostberg arrived 2.1 seconds behind fellow Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen to finish fourth in the stage. Overall, he overtook Mikko Hirvonen and Ott Tanak after starting the stage in fifth.
“I’m starting to understand where we are losing time compared to the fastest drivers,” Ostberg said. “But it’s difficult to find those extra few seconds. I’m trying to change my driving style so I can close the gap. The goal is to keep it up and try and hold onto our position until the end.
His cumulative time through two days of racing is 1:49:30.6, 43 seconds off the lead pace set by Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala. Mikkelsen is in second.
Meeke, at 1:51:18.8 is at the front of a pack chasing the rest of the top-5. He’s 1:22.5 behind Tanak and 2:31.2 off Latvala’s pace, maintaining a lead on seventh-placed Henning Solberg, another Norweigian, of 15.8 seconds.
Sheikh Khalid’s time of 1:58:41.0 has him in the middle of the pack, just 14.4 seconds behind 17th-placed Yuriy Protasov (Ukraine) and another 1.1 seconds behind 16th-placed Fredrik Ahlin (Sweden).
He has a comfortable 1:26.2 advantage over 19th-placed Lorenzo Bertelli (Italy).
“We were first on the road today. It was difficult to feel confident. I tried to push a bit more in some sections, but I almost went off,” he said. “I don’t want to take any more risks even though I know I can go faster. If we feel better tomorrow, then we’ll push a bit more.”
Rally Sweden is the second race on the World Rally Championship calendar. At Monte Carlo in January, Meeke led Team Abu Dhabi to a third-place finish behind Bryan Bouffier and winner Sebastien Ogier. Ostberg placed fifth in that race, putting Abu Dhabi second in the manufacturers’ standings behind Volkswagen Motorsport.
The final day of the rally will be ongoing Saturday. In the first stage of the day Ostberg finished third, behind Thierry Neuville of Germany by 1.9 seconds and Latvala by 2.6 seconds. Overall he remains in third, 18.2 seconds behind Mikkelsen for second and 55.1 seconds behind Latvala for first.