The team principal of M-Sport Ford, Richard Millener, says that his team has already focused its attention to the next event after the difficult Safari Rally, but he keeps one positive thing which is the Puma's speed in Powerstage.
Ott Tanak and Pierre-Louis Loubet finished in sixth and seventh place overall in Kenya as the M-Sport Ford duo faced many problems during last weekend. More specifically, the 2019 WRC Champion did not get all the power from the engine in Stage 4 where he suffered from a puncture as well meaning that he had to stop to change a wheel and lost more than two minutes there. In addition to these, another puncture hit him in Stage 11 and he was forced to stop to change the rear tyre resulting in dropping more than two minutes. Totally, the two punctures costed him more than four minutes and his rally was over as he was far from the rally leader Sebastien Ogier.
On the other hand, it was first time for Loubet participating at Safari Rally and did not know what to expect. He suffered from a setting issue from the opening stage of Friday which had as result not have engine power, but he managed to fix his car for the next one. The bad luck continued for him as he dropped more than three minutes in Stage 3 due to the fact that he had to stop to change a wheel while he completed the penultimate stage of the rally in road more. Finally, he stated at the end of Powerstage that he had an issue with the turbo pressure, therefore he was not able to score some points in PS. After the end of Safari Rally, Malcolm Wilson's team remains third overall on the manufacturers' standings and is behind Toyota and Hyundai for 110 and 62 points respectively.
"Kenya is great, it's mad!", Millener said.
"We've met some great people and seen some amazing fans.
"Obviously the rally was pretty tough for us, unfortunately the push for any podium position was over on Friday for both guys.
"But we still got 4 Power Stage points and sixth overall for Ott, we're not a million miles away!
"The pace on the Power Stage showed the car still has the ability to do well.
"We swap now from one of the roughest rallies of the year to the smoothest and fastest, Ott's home round in Estonia.
"The plan is to get these cars back, get them ready, and go again in a few weeks.
"A little bit of a tough weekend, but we're all still motivated to do well and try to keep us in that title fight".
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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