Jon Armstrong is planning a “different strategy” for the remaining rounds of his debut season in the World Rally Championship’s top flight.
M-Sport driver Armstrong has made a strong impression in 2026, particularly with his pace in a Ford Puma Rally1 having won a stage in Greece and run in the top-three at three events.
However – while it wasn’t down to him at the Acropolis – Armstrong has failed to put together a clean Friday since Rally Japan in May. In Estonia an awkward landing punctured a tire and left him out of contention, while in Finland he ran wide and beached his car, forcing him out for the day.
These little errors are frustrating enough, but they come with the poisoned chalice of an early road position for Saturday and likely Sunday – denying Armstrong the chance to show his pace or achieve a good result.
While clearly determined to show his speed, Armstrong admitted he may need to be more careful during the final four events.
Armstrong hasn't had a clean Friday for nearly three months
Reflecting after Rally Finland, Armstrong told DirtFish: “I think there’s always the want for more pace out of us, [but] we come here for our first time with Rally1 and to try and compete with the other guys is difficult.
“When you compare our experience level, it’s not bad. Some of the stage times that we’ve been able to do and comparing with our team-mates as well we’re not too far away – or let’s say ahead of them on some stages – so that’s good.
“And yeah I think if we come back come back next year, then you’ve learned a lot this year and I feel like especially when you make the mistake then the number one goal is to just try and get the experience, so at least we’ve covered Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s frustrating not to have a point scoring position again, but we need to try and get through Friday on the next rallies and see. Even if it means going quite carefully, then we need to try and take a different strategy now for the four remaining rallies.”
Armstrong did get the chance to prove his potential last weekend though by winning the Grampian Forest Rally – which acted as Rally Scotland’s FIA candidate event.
While not a full-blown WRC round (and he was behind the wheel of a Rally2 car instead of Rally1) Armstrong’s rivals included M-Sport team-mate Romet Jürgenson, and Lancia duo Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel.
“I think we were put in the Tarmac specialist box a little bit, so it’s good to prove that we can do it on gravel and show that our learnings from WRC, when we take a step back to Rally2, is really, really good,” Armstrong said.
“We needed a win and this was really special to us.”
