M-Sport came to the Monte-Carlo Rally with two official cars to fight for the best possible result. Gus Greensmith and Teemu Suninen were chosen with the WRC, while Adrien Fourmaux did the same with the Fiesta Rally2 within WRC2.
The first blow for the English firm came very soon. Teemu Suninen and Mikko Markkula said goodbye to the rally at the end of the first special after a hard crash.
After what happened and, more important than ever, Gus Greensmith’s main objective was to arrive with the whole car on Sunday. Of course, on Thursday, after two stages, he was already losing a minute and a half with Tänak. What’s worse, he was behind Fourmaux with Rally2.
The times of the English driver would not improve with the passage of kilometers. A fifth and several seventh places on the stage were Greensmith’s highlights during the race. He finished eighth, more than eight minutes behind the leaders and a significant distance over a “direct” contender like Takamoto Katsuta. Both add around ten tests with a car of the highest category.
These were the statements of the aforementioned pilot at the end of the Monegasque rally:
“It goes without saying that this wasn’t the weekend we wanted. I had a lot of confidence after the test and was really looking forward to this rally – but as soon as we got to that first stage the confidence just went to zero.
“So much work went on behind the scenes to get us here, and with the preparation we had I know we should have been better. Teemu proved on the first stage that there were no issues with the car – it was just the driver. I have to learn from this weekend, and work hard to get back to where I know we should be.”
