What are the factors that made Munster happy with his pace in Monte?

Gregoire Munster is being happy with his pace and what he achieved in Monte Carlo despite his retirement on Saturday afternoon.

The driver from Luxemburg secured his first ever WRC full-season campaign with M-Sport Ford and started his programme with Rallye Monte Carlo. He had a bried stop in Stage 3, but he hold his seventh place overall, while he stole the sixth position from Andreas Mikkelsen at the end of Stage 9 as Munster was the third-fastest driver there. However, he was forced to retire for the rest of Saturday afternoon when he went off the road in Stage 12 after his running wide on a left-hand bend and hitting a wooden barrier. The M-Sport Ford mechanics managed to repair his Puma for the final day of Rallye Monte Carlo and restarted under the regulations of SuperRally scoring only one point on the season opener as he was seventh on the classification of Sunday.

"The goal was just to get experience on this tricky rally in Monte-Carlo, and I think we managed to do that", Munster said. 

"Unfortunately we had to retire on Saturday and restart on Sunday, but I think we grabbed a lot of experience and showed great pace. 

"Thanks to the RNCs and weather crews, we managed to get a third fastest time, which is our best result so far on a WRC stage. 

"We also managed to be within 0.5s/km of Thierry on Saturday morning, while he was the fastest car on the loop, which was a real positive.

"We also managed to grab our first point in WRC, we could have achieved more without the mistake on Saturday, but still great learning and thanks to the team the car was working perfectly throughout the weekend".

Photo Credits: M-Sport