Mads Østberg is taking over Kris Meeke's vacant seat in the Citroën WRC team for the remainder of the 2018 season.
Meeke was dropped by Citroën ahead of the last event in Italy following recent crashes and the outfit has been looking for a full-time replacement. Østberg is known to the French marque, having driven for its factory team in 2014 and 2015 before returning for a three-round deal this season.
Although that deal finished in Italy, Østberg will take up Meeke's drive to contest five of the final six rounds on the calendar with the exception of Catalunya in October in which Sébastien Loeb will make his final appearance.
"This is fantastic news for me,” Østberg said. “I am so happy to have the rest of the season sorted. I am talking to the team and negotiating for Spain, this is a nice rally and somewhere that I have gone well before – I would like to be there. But the main thing is that I have a deal for the other rallies."
The Norwegian has finished in the top six on all three of his 2018 appearances so far.
"We all know about the situation that made the seat available, but no matter what the circumstances, I'm just glad that I got the seat,” he continued. “I think I delivered on the rallies that I have already done and now I'm looking forward to getting more used to the car in the next events. It will still take me some time, I was comfortable in the C3 in Sweden, but then I struggled a bit on the gravel. There is so much to adjust on a modern World Rally Car and the pace is so fast but now I have some time to work with the team."
Østberg now joins Craig Breen in Citroën’s full-time line-up.
"I didn't know Craig from before but he's really easy and open to work with,” the Norwegian added. “He's a very nice guy and there aren't always so many of them in this world."
Both drivers will begin their pre-event Rallye Deutschland test near Saarbrucken later this week, while Breen heads up Rally Finland preparations with an entry on next month's Rally Estonia. Finland is next on the calendar and Østberg believes he can start his new deal strongly there.
“You need confidence in the car there, but I have shown in the past that I can go well on this event – and Craig and Citroen have both had great results there as well."
