Jon Armstrong’s performance at Rally Islas Canarias has been a stark contrast to his World Rally Championship season so far.
In his first year at the top level the 31-year-old M-Sport driver has impressed, but round five has been a struggle with understanding the tires, which has led to a few mistakes.
On Friday morning he understeered wide and was fortunate to find an access road to handbrake his Puma Rally1 down and continue without any damage. Then later in the day, he ran wide and clattered an Armco barrier with the rear-left, which then led to him losing rear drive for the evening’s superspecial.
Saturday had been going better, but he and Shane Byrne went off the road on a right-hander near the end of the day’s final stage, narrowly avoiding an Armco barrier in the process. Thanks to the help of spectators they got back on the road, but not before losing two minutes.
“It was a bit like a ditch or like the entrance to the bank of a small river or something [that I went down],” Armstrong told DirtFish.
“But yeah, I was coming in this really fast section and there was some short braking over a crest and I was using some coasting, so not braking too hard, reducing the brake pressure. And then when I got closer to the corner, I started to apply a little bit more brake and turn in, but immediately the car started to understeer.
Armstrong has had a weekend to forget in Gran Canaria
“It’s quite tricky to understand how this tire works and that’s been the most challenging thing probably for this rally for me. It’s not so nice when you have these surprises, but yeah we didn’t hit the barrier and we managed to get out and get back on the road and keep going.”
Asked if temperature management of the tires, and finding himself without enough grip, was the issue, Armstrong added: “Yeah I guess that’s part of the issue and also a bit on the driving style how you manage that.
“So yeah we’ll have a good debrief and see if I can implement some improvements tomorrow.
“I think it’s going to be tricky to have any confidence. so I’m not expecting any big pace, but yeah, let’s see.”
Team-mate Josh McErlean by contrast had a “clean day” for the second leg in a row, but was sad to see his stablemate off the road.
“It was unfortunate to see Jon go off, obviously,” McErlean told DirtFish. “It was quite, I’m sure, a scary moment where he did go in.
“We were expecting him to stay stopped, but we got around the corner and saw the marks come back on the road, so we continued on to the end. I’ve obviously seen him, but yeah, it was good to return the favor obviously after him helping us a lot in Croatia [bumpstarting the car] to keep going.
“The car was actually surprisingly OK,” McErlean added. “The front damage wasn’t so bad. I think the wheels were the worst thing. It was buckled a lot and we just followed him the whole end of the road to make sure everything was OK.
“So yeah, we still own some beers after Croatia!”
