Armstrong Shifts Strategy for Final Four WRC Rounds in 2026

Jon Armstrong is planning a “different strategy” for the remaining rounds of his debut season in the World Rally Championship’s top flight. The M-Sport driver has made a strong impression in 2026, particularly with his pace in a Ford Puma Rally1—winning a stage in Greece and running in the top-three at three events.

However, 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 Sunday—denying him the chance to show his pace or achieve a good result.

“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,” he told DirtFish. “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.”

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Armstrong admitted that the primary goal now is to get through Fridays to gain experience, even if it means being more cautious. “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,” he added.

Last weekend, Armstrong proved his potential by winning the Grampian Forest Rally—an FIA candidate event for Rally Scotland. Although not a full WRC round and driving a Rally2 car, he beat M-Sport team-mate Romet Jurgenson 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.”