M-Sport Ford World Rally Team’s Adrien Fourmaux and Rhys Yates secured fourth and fifth place respectively at the second round of the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship in Rally Sweden.
Frenchman Fourmaux secured strong points as he set the second fastest time at the Finnskog 1 stage. On the first stage of Saturday morning, things got worse for the M-Sport newcomer when he recieved a broken front-left damper on his Ford Fiesta R5 MKII.
“This wasn’t the weekend we wanted, but I still think we can be happy with our performance. We showed that we have good pace when the conditions are more consistent, but we had a problem with the damper on Saturday.” Fourmaux said.
“It was difficult to get back on the pace after that, and we made a bad choice with the tyre pressures today. But it’s all good experience and I can take a lot away from what was only my second event with an R5 car on gravel.”
Yates secured a fifth place finish and delivered a flawless drive, keeping his head cool as he battled against some of the most experienced winter specialists. To cope with the challenging conditions, he improved his pace over the weekend.
“There was a bit of head-scratching on Friday which was a short but long day for us. But we made a big change to the car in service and everything felt much better after that.” Yates said.
“We ended Saturday’s loop where we were hoping to start the rally, but you live and learn. The car and the team have been mega all weekend, and it’s another finish with some good mileage under our belts so I’m happy with that.”
“I think Adrien and Rhys can both be really pleased with their weekend. They were going up against some pretty experienced drivers when it comes to this event, and I’d say that they more than held their own.” Richard Millener, Team Principal, said.
“The conditions were really challenging, but we saw strong performances from the pair of them – Adrien surprising a lot of people with that second fastest time and Rhys delivering a flawless drive all weekend. It’s a shame we had the issue with the damper on Saturday morning, but other than that it’s been another strong event for the Fiesta R5 MkII.”
