news-engine

Josh McErlean immediately joined the fight at the front on the opening day of Rally Paraguay. The Irishman set the second-fastest time on the second stage, moving up to fourth overall with co-driver Eoin Treacy. McErlean maintained his pace on the third stage, where he was third fastest. As other crews ran into trouble, the Irish pairing climbed to second by the midday service. McErlean remained in the leading battle until the seventh stage. However, a puncture forced him to stop and change the tyre during the stage, costing him valuable time. McErlean dropped to fifth overall. Buoyed by their strong performance on Friday, the pair began Saturday determined to hold on to the position they had worked hard to earn. They took a measured approach through the morning loop and retained fifth place. The pressure increased in the afternoon as Swedish driver Oliver Solberg closed the gap stage by stage. McErlean fought hard throughout the afternoon, but Solberg moved ahead of him on the final stage of the day. McErlean ended Saturday in sixth place. A measured drive on Sunday morning kept the pair out of trouble, but a broken gear lever threatened to slow their progress. An inventive repair using a spanner from their toolkit kept them moving. McErlean completed the Power Stage with the eighth-fastest time and secured sixth overall. The result matched McErlean’s career-best WRC finish. “Overall, it was a positive weekend. The conditions were obviously extremely difficult, as was everything else Paraguay threw at us. Friday was strong, though. Until the puncture, we were effectively fighting for a podium,” McErlean said. “Saturday was a little more difficult with the set-up and, of course, the weather we were expecting. We had a few problems on Sunday, but we managed to fix them and reach the finish. Overall, then, it was a positive weekend, and hopefully we can continue to improve our pace.” Jon Armstrong and co-driver Shane Byrne made an impressive start to the weekend. Armstrong set the joint third-fastest time on the second stage, just 0.1 seconds slower than team-mate McErlean, moving the pair up to fifth overall. Drama followed on the third stage when Armstrong hit a rock and suffered a puncture. The tyre quickly disintegrated on the abrasive road surface, after which the brakes also failed and the pair spun on a downhill section. Armstrong reached the end of the stage but lost almost a minute and a half. The pair then carried out a temporary repair and made it to the midday service in their damaged car. Armstrong and Byrne left service 14 minutes late, incurring a two-minute and 20-second time penalty. That dropped the pair to 16th overall. A consistent afternoon loop lifted them by two positions. Armstrong produced a strong performance on Saturday. His stage times remained close to McErlean’s, and he set the fourth-fastest time on stage 11 and the third-fastest on stage 12. By the lunch break, Armstrong had climbed back to 10th. His consistent pace continued in the loose conditions of the afternoon, and the Irishman ended Saturday eighth overall. However, the pair’s rally ended on Sunday’s third stage. Armstrong hit a bank, severely damaging the car’s left-rear suspension. The pair reached the end of the stage but were unable to continue. Their first Rally Paraguay therefore came to a premature end. “We made quite a good start on Friday and set some good times, but then we had a puncture. After that, we spun and damaged the car. We lost a lot of time on Friday because of the repairs we had to make in service,” Armstrong recalled. “Saturday was a strong day. We set some good stage times and fought our way back to seventh on Sunday.” The retirement left Armstrong frustrated. “We came to a section where the road surface changed slightly. There was not quite as much grip as we expected, so we ran a little wide, hit the bank and broke the rear suspension.” “It is really frustrating to come away without a result. The situation is a little difficult at the moment because we have missed out on a few results, but now we will do our best to finish the year strongly,” he said.