M-Sport Ford World Rally Team showcased promising performances from its Ford Puma Rally1 crews during the recent challenging and technical Rally Sweden. Mārtiņš Sesks, Grégoire Munster, and Josh McErlean delivered strong performances, steadily increasing their confidence and pace throughout the event.
Northern Ireland driver, Josh McErlean made an impressive Rally1 snow debut, finishing as the fastest M-Sport driver on Thursday night’s opening stage. He continued to improve on Friday, adapting well to the tricky conditions and setting the fifth-fastest time on SS6. By the end of the day, he remained in eighth overall, just behind teammate Sesks.
On Saturday, McErlean and co-driver Eoin Treacy refined their approach, testing different strategies and gaining confidence despite a minor overshoot on SS10. The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy-backed crew’s steady progress laid a strong foundation for the rest of the WRC season.
Sunday brought unexpected drama when McErlean ran wide midway through the opening stage, rolling into a snowbank and getting stuck. Thanks to the resilience of McErlean, Treacy, and nearby spectators, they managed to dig the car out and finish the stage. Despite a two-minute penalty, they completed the rally, gaining valuable experience in their second event with the Puma Rally1.
Richard Millener, Team Principal, said:
“Rally Sweden has been a great learning experience for our drivers. We knew coming in that it would be a tough challenge, but they adapted well, experimented with setups, and showed fantastic progress. Despite Josh’s incident on Sunday, he and Eoin showed great determination to finish and get the car out of that snowbank! They had done a brilliant job up until then and showed some very impressive pace right from the off. This weekend was all about learning for us, and we’re happy with the progress made.”
Josh McErlean, said:
“It’s been a really positive and strong weekend, the team’s done a fantastic job preparing the car and Eoin’s done a brilliant job on the notes. It’s been a real step forward since Monte-Carlo, we’ve shown some strong pace in terms of stage times and it’s something we can take forward with us. It’s given me huge confidence to say that I can actually fight with the top guys, and delivering top-five times has been really good to see.
“Honestly, it’s been really fun and so enjoyable to drive one of these cars on this surface and through these forests, it’s been simply incredible. I’m very humbled and appreciative of the opportunity. It was a shame with what happened today considering the pace we’ve been showing all weekend, we just ran a bit wide on a fast right-hander, got into the soft snow and it sucked us into the snowbank which stopped us in our tracks. The spectators did a fantastic job getting us out of there, so a big thanks to them and thanks to everyone supporting us this weekend. I’m really looking forward to Kenya next, it’s going to be a great adventure.”
