After a bit of a hot streak that had most recently led to its third straight podium finish and a successful debut for the non-hybrid Puma Rally1 at Rally Poland, the M-Sport Ford FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) team was rightfully confident heading into this past weekend’s Rally Latvia. Unfortunately, that confidence didn’t lead to much success at that brand new addition to the WRC calendar, however.
After a red-hot start that seemed destined to result in the first-ever podium finish for Mārtiņš Sesks, who was making his debut in the hybrid Puma Rally1, a transmission issue suffered in the final Power Stage thwarted those efforts. It was a heartbreaker after Sesks performed strongly all weekend and seemed highly likely to walk away with some sort of hardware, but instead, the mechanical problem left him staring at a seventh place finish.
Meanwhile, Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria wound up finishing fourth following three straight podium finishes, which is also precisely where Fourmaux stands in the driver championship race following that result. Grégoire Munster and Louis Louka finished behind them in ninth place, while William Creighton and Liam Regan piloted their Ford Fiesta Rally2 to a fifth place finish in WRC2 competition in a solid yet unspectacular weekend for the M-Sport Ford rally team.
“What an incredibly tough end to an incredible event,” said M-Sport Ford Team Principal Richard Millener. “Adrien scored another fantastic result this weekend and Grégoire continued the learning process, which of course we can be very happy about. I am totally devastated about what happened on the final stage, and I wish we could have delivered them the home podium, but WRC is tough, and it will be a tough lesson that will only help them get stronger into the future. I have been in that situation before, with both Ott and Elfyn hitting problems on the final stage – and both of them have gone on to do OK! I expect the same for Mārtiņš.”
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