WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP
The M-Sport team battle hard to bring the Fiesta WRCs home in Italy, but once again show the car has the pace to compete at the front
Rally Italia-Sardegna concluded with the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team bringing its cars safely to the finish after three days of action in some of the most brutal conditions we’ve seen on the World Rally Championship calendar.
Gus Greensmith and his new co-driver Stuart Loudon claimed seventh place in their EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta WRC. The young Englishman impressed with the maturity he displayed as he got the car fully dialled-in to the tight, treacherous gravel stages on the opening morning and only a gearbox issue at the end of Leg 1 and an electrical fault from Leg 2 kept him from a topfive finishing position.
Gus was pleased to say, “I think I was pretty happy with my driving this weekend. One or two stages were particularly good, it’s obviously a shame to then have technical issues that prevent that progress coming through in the overall results.”
He continued, “I think that we can take heart from the reliability that the other two cars have shown this weekend. Clearly mine have been isolated incidents, and in review and planning for the next event we will be able to move forward and keep aiming to get in among the top five.”
Teemu Suninen in the sister Fiesta WRC continued to build his knowledge of the new range of gravel tyres implemented for the series in 2021 on his first WRC outing since the snowbound stages of the Arctic Rally in February. Teemu and co-driver Mikko Markkula finished in eighth place after rolling out on the first stage of the rally and using the subsequent two days to gain valuable data for the team.
Teemu said, “We could be happier, obviously; the first day wasn’t very good for us and that was a big shame but we have been able to build a good rhythm through Saturday and Sunday and to learn more about the performance of the Pirelli tyres on gravel.”
In WRC2, Adrien Fourmaux underlined his potential by recovering from a retirement on the opening day to finish sixth in the hardfought junior category. The French youngster and his Belgian co-driver Renaud Jamoul set two fastest stage times on Saturday and then settled into a comfortable rhythm in order to ensure they reached the end of a gruelling 20-stage event.
Just as we send this issue to the printers, the cars are being unloaded in Kenya and ready to take on the infamous Safari Rally – it will be the first time the WRC has competed on this gruelling rally since a certain Mr McRae won in a Focus in 2002. We’ll bring you all the updates in the next issue.