McErlean and Treacy finish eighth in Portugal
With the best performance of their maiden WRC Rally1 season, Kilrea's Josh McErlean and Killeagh's Eoin Treacy brought their M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 home in eighth place in the Vodafone Rally de Portugal, the fifth round of the World Rally Championship. Gradually building their pace over the 23 stages and watched by some half a million spectators over three days, the Irish duo were the top-performing M-Sport Ford crew.
The rally was won by French driver Sebastien Ogier (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) for a record seventh time as the Toyota team notched a sixth successive victory in Portugal. Estonian Ott Tanak was controlling proceedings until his Hyundai i20 N Rally1 lost time on Saturday's penultimate stage that dropped him to third. He recovered to finish second, 8.7s behind Ogier and 3.5s ahead of Finland's Kalle Rovanpera (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1).
Tanak struggled on Saturday's opening three stages, suffering a puncture on SS13 some six kilometres from the stage end. Nevertheless, he managed to retain the lead - 11.8s ahead of Ogier with Rovanpera a further 24s behind in third. Tanak remained in control and increased his lead over Ogier to 13.9s but it went awry on the day's penultimate test (Amarante2) when his Hyundai developed a power steering issue midway through the 22.1km test. He dropped some 45s and slipped to third.
Eight-time world champion Ogier inherited top spot and ended the penultimate leg with a 27.6s lead over his Toyota Gazoo Racing team mate Kalle Rovanpera with the unfortunate Tanak 8.5s further behind in third.
'It's not the way you want to win any fight,' said Ogier. 'We were both pushing really hard - that's the game." Tanak said, 'It's part of the game, I guess. Very unfortunate, but we gave everything from our side.'
Rovanpera eclipsed teammate Takamoto Katsuta on SS14, the latter then dropping behind Hyundai's Thierry Neuville, who slotted into fourth on the penultimate stage. Having lost time on Friday as he opened the roads, championship leader Elfyn Evans struggled to find any rhythm even though he had a better road position, he was seventh - 17.5s behind team mate Sami Pajari.
McErlean/Treacy moved up to eighth, edging past M-Sport Ford team mate Gregoire Munster on the opening stage with the margin increasing to 28.5s at the end of the leg. "I think you have to do a mind shift to not care, but obviously you want to protect the car and try to get the experience, so it's kind of the balance between saving it and going at it." said McErlean.
Tanak won all but the first of Sunday's six stages, in the process reeling in Rovanpera for second as he claimed ten extra championship points, five each from Super Sunday and the Power Stage. Sixth placed Evans still leads the series - 30 points from Rovanpera.
At the finish McErlean added, "Crazy rally as always, so nice to come to the finish and have some good times as well. Big thanks to the whole team, because four cars (M-Sport) without any problems is some achievement."
Oliver Solberg (Skoda Fabia RS Rally2) won the WRC2 category, his seventh such victory in the category. Donegal's Eamonn Kelly and Monaghan's Conor Mohan (Ford Fiesta Rally3) were as high as second in the Junior WRC category until a double puncture cost them time, they eventually finished seventh.
Meanwhile, the Irish pairing of Killarney's Alan Ring and Newcestown's Adrian Deasy took the Munster Joinery liveried BMW M3 to a sixth place finish in Rallye d'Antibes Historic Rally, a counting round of the European Historic Rally Championship. They made a fine start to the nine stage rally and occupied second overall after the opening stage 10.23km stage. Weather conditions posed a tough challenge as they varied considerably from the service park to the stages that were some 50km away. They finished Friday's leg in eighth spot and made up two places on Saturday's stages.
The legendary Jari-Matti Latvala took a lead of a minute a minute and 6.5s into the final stage where his Toyota Celica ST185 suffered an electrical glitch that forced his retirement with French driver Tom Pieri (BMW M3 E30) best placed to take advantage.
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