The team principal of M-Sport Ford, Richard Millener, believes that his team's results in Estonia and in Finland are a real shame considering the hard work of mechanics, but he keeps the positives which are the Ott Tanak's pace and Pierre-Louis Loubet's finish.
To save some budget, the Cumbria-based team did not return the two Pumas back to the factory between Rally Estonia and Rally Finland, but instead of that the machanics made some repairs and changes on the move. Ott Tanak started his home event with a five-minute time penalty after taking a new engine at the end of the first Shakedown pass, but he managed to gain 40 positions and to finish eighth overall. In addition to that, Rally Finland did not start well for the 2019 WRC Champion as his Puma carried an electrical issue on his first Shakedown pass while he had to retire for the rest of the weekend as another engine issue hit him which forced him to drive on EV mode in Stage 3 and eventually to pull over on an access road. On the other hand, Pierre-Louis Loubet was the only M-Sport Ford driver that completed these two rallies. He overtook Takamoto Katsuta on the last stage of Rally Estonia and finished sixth overall despite the fact that he lost time in SS14 due to hybrid issues, but he was unlucky in Finland as he had to retire in SS3 with a broken rear suspension after hitting a rock. His mechanics managed to repair his Puma for Saturday, therefore he was able to restart under the Super Rally regulations, but he completed this gravel event outside the top 40.
"It's been a pretty difficult weekend for the team, I want to thank everybody for working so hard to get us here for the start of the rally with most of the team staying away from since the start of Rally Estonia", Millener said.
"So to end up with the results we had is a real shame for them - after all the hard work they put in.
"We know what we are able to achieve and we saw flashes of pace again on shakedown and stage one.
"Pierre got to the end of the rally after a difficult start which was great to see".
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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