World Rally Championship: Sebastien Ogier wins as Josh McArlean’s best finish in Greece

In a breakthrough weekend for McArlean, the only blemish for the 26-year-old and co-driver Ioin Treacy was a scare in the closing stages when he missed his braking point and lost 45 seconds as he returned to the road.

Despite being chased down by Samipazzari, Adrien Fourmaux and Evans, McArlean kept his composure to hold fourth place in the final stages.

After an unlucky start to the season, in which they had a best finish of eighth, McErlin completed a trio of seventh-place finishes from his first WRC season last year.

McErlean and Treacy didn’t have their best finish luck, either. They did when they needed to flash speed, and the crew kept their heads when they needed to control speed.

“We certainly haven’t made it easy for ourselves but to be honest, thanks to the whole team and every single person who believed in us,” said an emotional Mackerlin.

“It’s been a tough start to the year and thanks to this man (Tracey) who’s been there for me. What a rally.”

For his M-Sport team-mate John Armstrong, it was another rally of what could have been.

Northern Ireland’s Armstrong finished third and set his first fastest stage time in the WRC on Friday before his Ford Puma suffered a double puncture and turbo failure in Rally1, forcing him to retire.

The next rally took place on July 17-19 on the fast gravel roads of Estonia.

Rally Greece results

1. Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landrys (Toyota) 3:36:40.7

2. Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wiedeghe (Hyundai) +58.3s

3. Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +3:04.8

4. Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (M-Sport Ford) +4:55.5

5. Sami Pazari/Marko Salminen (Toyota) +5:02.2

6. Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Correia (Hyundai) +5:08.7

7. Elphin Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +5:54.9

…

20. Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota) +15:31.2

21. John Armstrong/Shane Byrne (Ford) +18:03.6

Positions of WRC drivers

1. Elphin Evans (GB) 158 pts

2. Takamoto Katsuta (Jap) 151

3. 125 (to) Sebastian Ogier

4. Sami Pazari (Fin) 114

5. Oliver Solberg (Swe)103

6. Adrien Fourmaux (from) 97

7. Thierry Neuville (Bel) 95

…

11. Josh Mackerlin (IRL) 19

13. John Armstrong (IRL) 14