The M-Sport Ford World Rally Championship (WRC) team has thus far enjoyed quite a bit of success in the 2024 season, having kicked things off with podium finishes at both Rally Sweden and Safari Rally Kenya, as well as a Power Stage win at Rally Croatia. What makes that streak even more impressive is the fact that the M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 racer is also fresh off some tweaks for the new season, though one of the biggest – an updated rear wing – just made its debut in Croatia. With some help from Ford Performance and its WRC simulator, the M-Sport Ford team is now in a solid spot heading into this weekend’s Rally Portugal race, too.
Rally Portugal represents the fifth round in the 2024 WRC season, and it’s one that has quite a rich history, to boot. Portugal marks the start of a long run of gravel rallies that persist through the summer, and offers up high speeds mixed with rough and technical sections, encompassing 22 special stages across 337 kilometers around the city of Porto. Once again, M-Sport Ford will tackle this latest round with two Puma Rally1 racers piloted by Adrien Fourmaux – who currently sits in third place in the driver’s championship race – and Grégoire Munster, plus a Fiesta Rally2 in the WRC2 category driven by William Creighton.
“Rally Portugal is a really famous and spectacular rally,” Fourmaux said. “The roads are all in the middle of the mountains, so they’re really technical and we normally have very tough conditions where the temperatures are quite high. It’s really demanding for the cars and the crew. It’s going to be my fourth time in Portugal, I really like it as a rally, especially when you finish the Power Stage at Fafe and there are so many fans there watching. I’m looking forward to enjoying the atmosphere and hopefully achieving another good result.”
“Portugal is always a popular event, for good reason,” added M-Sport Ford Team Principal Richard Millener. “The stages are fast, technical, and rough, so it ticks all the boxes of a gravel rally. There’s a lot of jeopardy here, with risk of punctures and damage to the cars on the rough sections very high. It’s always a good one to watch and it’s a fantastic event for the fans. Adrien is pretty experienced here, so he has a good knowledge base and knows where you can push and where to respect the road. He’s had a truly fantastic start to the season, and Croatia would have been an equally strong finish had he not had the bad luck on Sunday morning. There’s every reason for him to do well in Portugal.”
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