Jon Armstrong's tough streak in the WRC continued at Rally Chile Biobio. The M-Sport Ford driver rolled his car on Saturday, ending his hopes of scoring points. The incident adds to a series of struggles he has faced this season.
Earlier in Paraguay, Armstrong retired due to suspension damage. In Chile, he and co-driver Shane Byrne started well, even overtaking teammate Josh McErlean for seventh on Friday afternoon. However, on the final stage of the day, he dropped back to eighth, just 2.4 seconds behind McErlean.
Unfortunately, that positive momentum did not continue on Saturday. On the second stage, his Ford understeered in a corner, hit a bank, and rolled. With help from spectators, Armstrong and Byrne managed to continue, but the car's cooling system was too damaged, ending their day prematurely.
“There was probably a bit of a problem with the pace note. The corner was a bit shorter than I expected before it tightened. If you're expecting more distance for deceleration, then when it tightens, it comes much more quickly,” Armstrong explained.
The M-Sport Ford team repaired the car for Sunday. Armstrong admitted he struggled with the car on the tricky stages. “It was difficult in the morning because we had to restart with a very tricky stage. I had no feeling with the car. To be honest, it was a bit of a mess with the feeling at times this weekend,” he said.
Nevertheless, Armstrong completed Sunday without major drama. He set the seventh-fastest time on the penultimate stage and was also seventh on the Power Stage. He finished 33rd overall. His last WRC points came at Rally Estonia, and he is now enduring a difficult run across several events.
“It has not been easy. I don't think this car is always easy to drive, but I improved the set-up a bit on Sunday with the dampers. When you look at the Power Stage time, it was a bit better. Hopefully, that's a good sign that we are getting closer to a good pace again,” Armstrong said hopefully.
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