Jon Armstrong is focused on enjoying his driving after claiming a maiden World Rally Championship stage win at Acropolis Rally Greece.
The M-Sport driver set the pace on SS5 Elikon Mt by 0.6 seconds over reigning world champion and Acropolis winner Sébastien Ogier, leaving him third overall and 18.9s off the lead.
However, Armstrong and co-driver Shane Byrne had to stop and change a puncture on SS6, and then retired for the day on the road section afterwards with a turbo issue.
Armstrong eventually finished 20th overall, spending the final two days running at the head of the field.
Armstrong experienced plenty of loose gravel during two days of opening the road
“It was great to get my first WRC stage win,” Armstrong reflected. “That’s a nice achievement to tick off the list, so I’m really pleased with that.
“I had actually driven parts of the stage back in 2022 in Junior WRC, so I had a little bit of familiarity with it, which definitely helped.
“Looking back on the event as a whole, though, it’s hard not to think about what might have been,” he added. “We showed really strong pace on Friday and were sitting third overall when we suffered the turbo issue. That was obviously frustrating because we felt we were in a really good position.
“The rest of the weekend was more difficult because we were opening the road, but even then it was valuable experience. It gave us a much better understanding of what it’s like to run first on the road, and that’s knowledge we’ll be able to use in the future.
“Even while sweeping the stages, we still managed to set some competitive times against the drivers around us, so there are plenty of positives to take away. We showed we have the pace, and that’s encouraging.”
Encouraging pace bodes well for upcoming gravel rounds
Armstrong is now eight rallies into his Rally1 career, and he said he’s “making small steps in understanding the car, the championship and the level of competition”.
He felt his stage win was a result of that progress, but now his focus is on continuing to enjoy driving his Ford Puma at the upcoming high-speed events in Estonia and Finland.
“We’re looking forward to the fast gravel rallies coming up,” said Armstrong, who has contested Rally Estonia three times but Rally Finland just once.
“They’re going to be a different challenge altogether with big jumps, high speeds and really using the aero to its maximum.
“The main thing for the rest of the season is to keep enjoying the driving. If you’re enjoying yourself and feeling comfortable in the car, the stage times usually follow, so that’s the approach we’ll continue to take.”
