Fourth became sixth, but 2026’s Acropolis Rally Greece still marked Josh McErlean’s best ever World Rally Championship result.
The one-minute time penalty, applied to his SS16 stage time after he had completed all the stages, took the shine off a breakthrough weekend for the M-Sport driver, but it doesn’t undo what he produced beforehand.
Keeping his head down and staying out of trouble, McErlean rose to new heights after a tricky opening half to the campaign where new team-mate, and fellow Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy driver, Jon Armstrong outperformed him.
Armstrong grabbed his own headlines in Greece thanks to a maiden WRC stage win, but it was McErlean who got the hard-fought result after crafting a fix for a broken damper on Saturday afternoon’s road section.
McErlean’s only other points finishes in 2026 were ninth in Sweden, eighth in Gran Canaria and 10th in Japan, after a campaign beset by mistakes in Monte Carlo and Portugal, mechanical drama in Kenya and a puncture change in Croatia.
Acropolis was a breakthrough moment for McErlean's season
“I think it is very, very promising for me and it gives us a lot of confidence,” McErlean told DirtFish.
“We knew Friday was very important. We screwed that up a lot of times in the past where we got a puncture and we lost road position for the rest of the event, so it was nice to actually capitalise on it this time and show all the hard effort of the team and everyone behind the scenes because I don’t know when the last time we’ve been inside the top five [was]. It’s been a long time and yeah, it was good for us.”
McErlean’s bid for a strong result almost evaporated on the penultimate stage, when he outbraked himself on a downhill braking and nosed his Ford Puma Rally1 into a ditch.
“I thought it was all over,” McErlean admitted.
“I tried to reverse, it spun, I rocked it forward, went again, didn’t happen. Then I went out of stage mode and drove forward slightly a bit more over the rock we were in but we were still going downhill.
“So I put it back into stage mode, put it in reverse and I just buried it. The car pulled itself out and then we got back onto the road. It was a relief and a lot of anger at the same time because it was hard to judge the speed in that stage.
“We had a minute [in hand], I knew that, but you know these guys can take 30 seconds in a flash, so we tried to keep the momentum and we were actually doing good in the stage. A bit of suspense before the last one.”
A penultimate stage error cost McErlean fourth, but the performance was confidence inspiring regardless
McErlean then defended fourth position on the road before the time penalty ultimately dropped him back two places behind Sami Pajari and Elfyn Evans.
Regardless, McErlean’s performance acts as a big confidence boost going forward as he proved to himself what he’s capable of.
“I think Monte Carlo was definitely the toughest start we could ever expect,” he reflected. “There was a lot of head-scratching after that there, and even the likes of Portugal in Lousada, you can’t get much lower than that point.
“You just have to keep on bouncing back and have the people behind you to do it. Then going to Donegal last week, honestly, I think it was a big help. To go there in the Fiesta and to race Kris [Meeke], I think, gave us a lot of confidence that we actually can showcase [ourselves].
“We came here straight after it, going directly, and tried to do the best job we could, and yeah, it’s a big effort from the team, and Eoin, and everyone that supports us, including John Coyne and the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy.
“So yeah, it’s nice to go on the fast gravel now. It’s something we enjoyed a lot in these cars especially.”
