Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia secured their second victory of the year at Rally Portugal. Despite a brush with the Portuguese scenery, Ott Tänak and Elfyn Evans ensured that all three of M-Sport’s top-specification Fiestas finished inside the top-six.
Proving to have the performance as well as the strength, the Fiesta led for 14 of the 19 stages and secured 10 stage victories courtesy of Ogier, Tänak, and privateer Mads Østberg.
Ogier, Tänak and Evans all secured points in the Power Stage and the team have increased their lead at the head of both FIA World Rally Championships.
With six events now under their belt, M-Sport has never failed to miss out on a podium result – Ogier, Tänak and Evans all contributing to the nine top-three results secured thus far.
Malcolm Wilson: “I think we’ve taken a big step towards getting the Fiesta more to Sébastien’s liking”
“It’s been a fantastic weekend for the team. It’s great to secure the win, but it’s also great to see another strong performance from the entire team. All three of our crews have finished inside the top six, we’ve kept our clean-sweep of podiums intact, and we’ve also increased our lead at the head of both championships”, Team Principal Malcolm Wilson said.
“You can image the team’s disappointment after losing the victory in Argentina. To come here and take the win is fantastic. There’s been quite a bit of emotion in the service park, but we’ve got a great team of people and it’s because of their commitment that we’re in this position.”
“There has been a lot of hard work over the past couple of weeks and I think we’ve taken a big step towards getting the Fiesta more to Sébastien’s liking. He and Julien felt really confident this weekend and they delivered an incredible drive to limit the time loss on Friday. From my point of view, that was their best drive of the year and where they made the difference.”
“They have driven faultlessly all weekend and I know that this win means as much to them as it does to the team. We’ve still got some work to do, but we know that we can achieve success and we want more of it. The hard work doesn’t stop here, that is for sure.”
Welcome back to service, the @rallydeportugal winners!! #WRC pic.twitter.com/IyNnarbtfu
— M-Sport (@MSportLtd) May 21, 2017
