Mads Østberg and co-driver Jonas Andersson was leading from start to finish and after nine special stages the duo finished 2 minutes and 38 seconds in front of number two, Marius Aasen.

On Saturday Rally Elverum was held of Norway, the second round in the Norwegian championship. Thursdays test drive on snowy roads gave Østberg confidence. That led to the podium.
– Today’s rally was a good one in every way and gave me valuable practice before going to Sweden in two weeks, Østberg says.

Østberg started out first on the road but kept the lead throughout the whole rally. Rally Elverum had a total length of 201,39 kilometres with 126,66 SS-kilometres. For the first time in Norwegian Rally history a power stage ended the rally, with Mads Østberg on the finish line satisfied with the round that gave him a lot of answers before his first first World Rally Championship event this year.  
– Today’s roads and conditions gave me exactly what I hoped for. I got to test out a few things which is important before going to Rally Sweden and this rally is pretty similar to some of the stages over there, Mads says.

Two of today’s nine stages were repeated giving the duo the practice on roads with ruts.

Saturdays rally was new to Mads and that is also listed as one of the many positive things before the world championship heads of.
– Making new pacenotes is an important lesson especially since we had never been to this event before. On one of the stages the pacenotes could have been even more specific. This time it wasn’t a big deal but it’s something we need to work on, Østberg says.

Before Rally Elverum Østberg was listed number three in the championship. Saturdays result gave him 23 points leaving him with 41 points overall and he now leads the championship. But more important it gave him confident and valuable practice.
– It’s been a good weekend. The car is still more or less perfect, the cooperation between Jonas and me works perfectly and the lessons we tough are important, Østberg says.