Rally Sardinia is always a challenge on the World Rally Championship (WRC) circuit. Hot off success at Croatia Rally, the M-Sport Ford racers battled and shouldered their way to decent finishes in Sardinia, with one Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid capturing fifth place overall.
That driver was Grégoire Munster. Alongside codriver Louis Louka, Munster managed to keep his nose clean during the grueling rally, setting the seventh-fastest time during the challenging opening stage. He laid down the fourth-fastest time during SS3, and he went on to end the day seventh overall. He went on to have a clean, successful afternoon the next day, placing fifth, and finally, on Sunday, he held steady and wheeled his race car to fifth place overall throughout the weekend.
However, Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria had a much different result at Rally Sardinia. The French M-Sport Ford duo started strong on Friday, claiming two third-fastest stage times and ending the day third overall. However, a tire went down during SS3, and the team was done in during SS4, when their Puma presented with an electrical issue that put an end to their day. Returning to the course, the curse continued – a front brake pipe issue plagued Fourmaux, which was quickly repaired. However, another tire puncture crippled the Puma in SS11. Sunday was quieter, but unimpressive, for the French racer.
Meanwhile, in WRC2, William Creighton and Liam Regan in the Fiesta Rally2 held decent pace throughout the weekend, although their race car suffered a power steering issue that put it off the pace and forced their retirement after SS6. However, they hit the road once again on Sunday, gaining valuable points and experience, earning the third fastest stage time in the division.
“We knew it was always going to be hard to continue our good run here in Sardinia, one of the toughest events of the European part of the WRC, but dispute not getting the result we wanted, we can still be happy with the speed Adrien and Alex showed on many of the event stages,” said Richard Millner, M-Sport Ford team principal. “I also want to congratulate Grégoire and Louis on their best result to date in the WRC – a really great achievement for them both and secures them eight championship points. We now look towards three fast rallies in a row where we are determined to get back to chasing the podium places.”
In the meantime, the M-Sport Ford racers can look to the simulator to help them gain valuable experience, which has proved to be a boon to their performance thus far.
We’ll have more on M-Sport Ford soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford racing news and comprehensive Ford news coverage.
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