Mads Ostberg is claiming a new world record after jumping his Fiesta RS World Rally Car 60.48 metres on snow.
Ostberg, who drives for the Qatar M-Sport World Rally Team, made the jump on Saturday night at a winter extreme sport festival at Trysil in his home country of Norway.
In front of thousands of spectators, Ostberg set off from the top of a ski-slope in his own Fiesta, equipped with studded tyres, reaching more than 145kph in sixth gear before hitting the packed-snow launch ramp.
“It’s a fantastic feeling – I loved it,” said Ostberg. “When I was flying I just wanted to be in the air even longer. You just want a bit more, a bit more and you don’t want to land.”
Ostberg made five attempts at the jump, recording his longest leap on the final run after damper adjustments enabled him to get more speed at take-off.
“Getting enough speed was the biggest challenge,” explained Ostberg. “There was another smaller jump further up the slope which launched us about 30 metres and that cost us some speed on the approach.
“We were hitting 150kph, but we need more than that to break 60 metres. This was the longest we could jump tonight. Maybe we’ll go even longer next year!
The jump was more than twice the 28 metres he jumped over Colin’s Crest at Rally New Zealand in February.
