M-Sport Ford World Rally Team showcased promising performances from its Ford Puma Rally1 crews during this week’s challenging and technical Rally Sweden. Mārtiņš Sesks, Grégoire Munster, and Josh McErlean delivered strong performances, steadily increasing their confidence and pace throughout the event.
Mārtiņš Sesks made an impressive return to the team, securing sixth overall in his first appearance of the 2025 season with M-Sport. Displaying growing confidence throughout the weekend, he put in strong performances on several stages while gaining valuable experience on snow in his Rally Sweden debut. After a steady start on Friday, Sesks found his rhythm in the afternoon, setting the third-fastest times on SS5 and SS6. By the end of the day, he was leading the M-Sport charge in seventh overall.
Saturday brought further challenges with tricky conditions, but Sesks remained composed and avoided major mistakes. Despite a small overshoot on SS12, he maintained his strong performance, finishing the day in sixth overall. On Sunday, he adopted a consistent approach, delivering solid stage times without overextending himself. His measured drive secured an impressive weekend of learning and progression, earning him eight championship points to take into the rest of the season.
Despite initial struggles with the car’s balance and feel on Friday morning, Grégoire Munster delivered a clean and composed Rally Sweden, steadily building confidence and pace throughout the weekend. By Friday afternoon, he had settled in, finishing sixth-fastest on SS5. As the rally progressed, Munster found his rhythm and experimented with different driving styles alongside his teammates.
By the end of Saturday, he held ninth overall, having successfully navigated some of the event’s most difficult conditions. A steady Sunday run, including the demanding 29km Västervik stage, saw Munster finish eighth overall, securing four championship points. Munster and co-driver Louis Louka’s steady improvement throughout the rally demonstrated their growing confidence in the Puma Rally1, providing valuable insights for future loose surface events.
Josh McErlean made an impressive Rally1 snow debut, finishing as the fastest M-Sport driver on Thursday night's opening stage. He continued to improve on Friday, adapting well to the tricky conditions and setting the fifth-fastest time on SS6. By the end of the day, he remained in eighth overall, just behind teammate Sesks.
On Saturday, McErlean and co-driver Eoin Treacy refined their approach, testing different strategies and gaining confidence despite a minor overshoot on SS10. The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy-backed crew’s steady progress laid a strong foundation for the rest of the WRC season.
Sunday brought unexpected drama when McErlean ran wide midway through the opening stage, rolling into a snowbank and getting stuck. Thanks to the resilience of McErlean, Treacy, and nearby spectators, they managed to dig the car out and finish the stage. Despite a two-minute penalty, they completed the rally, gaining valuable experience in their second event with the Puma Rally1.
Competing in his first WRC event on snow in Rally1 machinery, Jourdan Serderidis had a positive weekend with the team, gaining valuable experience alongside co-driver Fred Miclotte. Embracing the challenge with his characteristic enthusiasm, the Greek driver was a welcome addition to the team’s Rally1 line-up.
Romet Jürgenson also made his Fiesta Rally2 debut with the team, the first of seven rounds in his 2025 prize-drive campaign. Jürgenson and co-driver Siim Oja leveraged their experience on snow to deliver a strong drive in their upgraded machinery. Displaying maturity and intelligence in their approach, the Estonian pairing secured multiple top-ten stage times and finished seventh in WRC2 and sixth in the WRC2 Challenger category.
Richard Millener, Team Principal, said:
“Rally Sweden has been a great learning experience for our drivers. We knew coming in that it would be a tough challenge, but they adapted well, experimented with setups, and showed fantastic progress. Mārtiņš delivered some really strong times, he was very focused on where he wanted to improve and he delivered on that perfectly. Despite Josh’s incident on Sunday, he and Eoin showed great determination to finish and get the car out of that snowbank! They had done a brilliant job up until then and showed some very impressive pace right from the off. Grégoire also made solid steps forward, he’s taken on a lot of feedback and we’ve seen big improvements throughout the weekend.
"Jourdan has also had a great weekend and a lot of fun on his first WRC event on snow in the Puma. And in WRC2, we’ve seen Romet deliver a really strong performance on his Rally2 debut, and he has set down some strong foundations for the rest of the season. This weekend was all about learning for us, and we’re happy with the progress made.”
Mārtiņš Sesks, Sixth Overall, said:
“That’s Rally Sweden done and dusted! I’m quite happy actually about our performance and our consistency. With our ‘safe speed’, we managed to get through the rally and collected some decent times as well. Especially on the second passes, where we were a bit more used to the road conditions, we were able to get some top-three times which was the big positive of the weekend.
“On some other stages we posted some competitive split times, so I think the good thing is that we can see we have the speed here and we can drive really fast in some circumstances. I think the big thing this weekend was the experience and to build some consistency for the future, and for the rest of the season to come this is a good start. I think it was quite a decent result.”
Grégoire Munster, Eighth Overall, said:
“For sure, not the result we wanted here on Rally Sweden, but lots of positives to take home. We reached the finish without making any big mistakes; but we have some regrets from the first stages on Friday morning and the big time loss there, which caused us to open the road on the following days.
“Still, we learned a lot and we’ve worked with the engineers on the set-up and have done some analysis and on-board comparisons to be able to keep improving. Although it doesn’t reflect in the stage times, we made some good improvements despite opening the road.”
Jourdan Serderidis, 33rd Overall, said:
“Well, with so little experience on snow, it was a hard start on Friday and we made some mistakes on setup. Then, we improved stage after stage, giving a better performance and having some fun! We took a lot of confidence in Umeå and I am sure it will help us for the next events, Kenya and our national rally in Greece.”
Josh McErlean, 46th Overall, said:
“It’s been a really positive and strong weekend, the team’s done a fantastic job preparing the car and Eoin’s done a brilliant job on the notes. It’s been a real step forward since Monte-Carlo, we’ve shown some strong pace in terms of stage times and it’s something we can take forward with us. It’s given me huge confidence to say that I can actually fight with the top guys, and delivering top-five times has been really good to see.
“Honestly, it’s been really fun and so enjoyable to drive one of these cars on this surface and through these forests, it’s been simply incredible. I’m very humbled and appreciative of the opportunity. It was a shame with what happened today considering the pace we’ve been showing all weekend, we just ran a bit wide on a fast right-hander, got into the soft snow and it sucked us into the snowbank which stopped us in our tracks. The spectators did a fantastic job getting us out of there, so a big thanks to them and thanks to everyone supporting us this weekend. I’m really looking forward to Kenya next, it’s going to be a great adventure.”
Romet Jürgenson, 7th in WRC2, 6th in WRC2 Challenger, 15th Overall, said:
“For our first ever WRC2 round, we’ve had a very good trouble-free event with a solid result on the board. We actually hit one of our targets already on Friday, when we were constantly in a good place pace wise compared to the fastest crews. There were definitely some difficult moments during the weekend, for example on Saturday, but now on Sunday in similar conditions we once again improved quite a lot. So, all in all, a very good start to the season. Big thanks to all the people at M-Sport for a good effort! Let’s go again soon!”
Published 16 February 2025