The M-Sport Ford FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) team started out the 2024 season pretty hot, racking up a number of podium finishes and placing itself directly in the battle for championship points. However, M-Sport Ford has faced its fair share of difficulties over the past few weeks, which essentially began at Rally Latvia with transmission woes, then continued into Acropolis Rally Greece. Regardless, M-Sport Ford headed into this past weekend’s Rally Chile race with high hopes, though those were quickly dashed as well.
While Adrien Fourmaux, Grégoire Munster, and Mārtiņš Sesks all managed to finish Rally Chile without suffering any major mechanical issues, none of the three posted a podium finish either, in spite of some early success. Fourmaux and co-pilot Alex Coria got off to a torrid start and landed in the top three early on Friday, but a damaged alternator belt quickly thwarted any hopes they had of staying there – followed by a busted water pipe and other various issues. A frustrating one-minute penalty prevented Fourmaux from securing a second-place finish after taking a stage win in SS6, making matters worse, though the duo ultimately nabbed two points in the Super Sunday standings with a fifth place overall result.
Grégoire Munster and Louis Louka also got off to a hot start in Chile as well, claiming the third fastest time in SS3 and fifth overall at the end of the day. Regardless, the duo could only muster a seventh-place finish by the end of the weekend, while Mārtiņš Sesks and Renārs Francis enjoyed a rough debut at the gravel event due to two tire punctures, which were followed by an early retirement.
“It is definitely a case of what could have been here, the one minute time penalty really hampered the overall result for Adrien, which was a huge shame,” said M-Sport Team Principal Richard Millener. “However, that’s rally sometimes and despite this disappointment we can still look back on another positive weekend. Two stage wins, another demonstration of the speed of the Puma from both Adrien and Gregoire, and solid results from them both in some really tricky conditions. I am also happy for Grégoire and Louis that they have got a solid result after the last two tricky events. For Mārtiņš and Renārs, I guess it wasn’t quite what they had hoped for. A small mistake with big consequences on Friday, and a tough last stage with no rear spoiler, but I think they still did a great job and got an insight into the experience that they need to learn to get to the top of the WRC – one of the key reasons to bring them here.”
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