MIXED FORTUNES FOR M-SPORT AT CENTRAL EUROPEAN RALLY

M-Sport Ford World Rally Team wrapped up a challenging yet encouraging weekend on Central European Rally, an event that took crews across three countries and a variety of tricky Tarmac stages. 

Puma Rally1 drivers Grégoire Munster and Josh McErlean showed strong pace and determination throughout the rally, with McErlean finishing seventh overall and matching his best FIA World Rally Championship result.

Both Munster and McErlean made it through Thursday afternoon’s stages cleanly, settling into a rhythm and finishing the opening day ninth and tenth overall respectively.

Friday morning began positively with both crews completing the opening two stages without issue. However, SS5 brought drama when Munster clipped a bank after landing a jump, damaging his suspension and forcing the crew off the road. Sadly, Munster and co-driver Louka were forced to retire for the day, and returned to service. McErlean also faced difficulty in the same stage, losing significant time after suffering a rear puncture, but able to continue into the midday tyre-fitting zone. 

Despite the setback, McErlean recovered well throughout the afternoon loop, showing improved confidence and pace across the Czech and Austrian roads, ending the day ninth overall.

Saturday presented crews with a challenging tyre choice as rain threatened the morning stages. Munster, rejoining the field, experienced two high-speed spins early in the day but avoided damage. McErlean made contact with a hay bale on SS10, resulting in front-end damage and a five-second penalty, yet maintained solid pace throughout the day.

The morning loop ended on a positive note as Munster went eighth fastest, with McErlean just half a second behind. Both drivers delivered a clean afternoon, with Munster enjoying a good run and McErlean overcoming a minor off on SS14 that caused rear-end damage. Both cars made it safely back to service, and McErlean climbed to eighth overall by the end of the day.

The final day saw both M-Sport crews push through the remaining stages with determination.

McErlean had a small off-road moment on SS16,while Munster impressed with a fifth-fastest time on SS17, the penultimate test of the event.

Both crews delivered a composed performance on the Power Stage, securing valuable mileage and experience for the team. McErlean finished seventh overall, matching his career-best WRC result, while Munster showed strong pace and resilience after Friday’s retirement, finishing 27th overall.

The team will now regroup and prepare for the long journey east to Rally Japan.

M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Principal, Rich Millener, said:

“It’s been a challenging weekend but one with plenty of positives. Both drivers showed real progress, especially Josh who matched his best-ever result and continues to grow in confidence. Grégoire’s pace on Sunday shows what he’s capable of, and the team worked hard to keep both cars running smoothly across three very different countries. We’ll take these learnings forward as we prepare for the penultimate round in Japan.”

Josh McErlean, Seventh Overall, said:

“It’s been a big learning experience - we’ve had a bit of everything this weekend, running at the front and the back of the field. It was great to see Grégoire back out after his mishap on Friday so we could properly compare times. From the start of the rally to now, we’ve closed that gap to him, and that was one of our main goals coming into this event.”

Grégoire Munster, 27th Overall, said:

“It’s not the result we wanted after my mistake on Friday - we landed a jump and broke the suspension  but we had to try something on that stage. Overall, we’ve seen that we’re much closer to the others than we were in Gran Canaria, which is very encouraging. It’s nice to see that even in tricky Tarmac conditions we can be right there with the rest, and I think in Japan we’ll have another opportunity to show that.”

Published 19 October 2025