The M-Sport Ford team got off to a strong start at the beginning of the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) season, but has hit a bit of a slump in recent weeks. With multiple podium finishes under its belt, M-Sport Ford finished outside of the top three at Rally Chile, and then faced more struggles at Acropolis Rally Greece, though driver Adrien Fourmaux scored enough points to remain in fifth place in the championship standings. Unfortunately, these struggles continued at this past weekend’s 2024 Central European Rally, too.
Though it headed into the Central European Rally with high hopes in terms of replicating its earlier success, M-Sport Ford instead faced its fair share of issues yet again, though it wasn’t all bad news for the rally team. Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria experienced some problems with their Puma Rally1’s hybrid system that took a day to rectify, which wasn’t ideal given the unexpected damp, foggy conditions. Coupled with differential problems, that led to Fourmaux hitting the wall at one point, causing further damage, though the next day, the duo bounced back and claimed a third-place finish on Super Sunday.
As for Grégoire Munster and Louis Louka, that duo scored their best finish to date by coming in fifth overall, claiming 10 points in the process. Jourdan Serderidis and Frédéric Miclotte completed their first full-Tarmac WRC event in the non-hybrid Puma Rally1, though could only muster a 20th place finish. In the WRC2 category, William Creighton and Liam Regan had a positive outing in their Fiesta Rally2 – in spite of suffering a puncture on Friday – and wound up placing ninth, adding two points to their tally. Though a championship is out of reach, M-Sport Ford is now simply looking to close out the 2024 season on a high note.
“This was a bit of a tricky weekend and from a quick look at the results could be seen as not our strongest, but in reality there were a number of strong positives,” said M-Sport Ford Team Principal Richard Millener. “Greg picked up a repeat of his best performance this year, but also scored himself the most points in one event this year, and Adrien recovered on Sunday to show he has the pace on Tarmac by finishing in his highest position on Super Sunday. The rally was really tricky for the team, with lots of logistical movements, but as expected they dealt with all of the extra complications with maximum efficiency and did a fantastic job all round. We now have one final event of the year to look forward to, and I am confident we can go out on a high this year in Japan.”
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