M-Sport Ford World Rally Team’s Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson continue to hold a commanding lead in the WRC 2 Pro category with their EcoBoost-powered Ford Fiesta R5. Thanks to an inspired drive throughout the day, the British pairing have also taken control at the head of the RC2 class – outperforming a number of local drivers on what is Greensmith’s first taste of this legendary event with four-wheel-drive machinery.
Gus Greensmith (1st WRC 2 Pro and 1st RC2) said:
“We had a bit of a tricky morning with some overheating issues which meant that we couldn’t always run in full stage mode. We lost a bit of time there, but we were still able to reduce the gap to class-leader Bonato.
“This afternoon we decided to take quite a risky tyre choice with four slick and two snow tyres. We knew we would lose time on the first stage [SS6] and we lost 22 seconds to Bonato in there. But on the next one [SS7] we were able to take back 36 seconds, and on the last one [SS8] we pulled back 29 which means that we now have a six second class lead going into tomorrow.
“The car feels really good, I feel really good, and we just need to keep doing the same thing tomorrow.”
Team Principal, Richard Millener, said:
“Gus has had another really strong day. He wasn’t shy about making a risky tyre choice this afternoon and made it work to his advantage – maintaining the WRC 2 Pro lead but also taking the RC2 lead. This is such a tricky event, and he’s proving that he has what it takes to fight for the top results this weekend. He just needs to continue what he’s doing so far.”
