WRC
Armstrong achieves goal as WRC rookie season ends with career-best result
Amid the drama of a sensational WRC title fight, M-Sport-Ford’s Jon Armstrong achieved a milestone of his own, rounding off his rookie season at the top level with a career-best WRC result.
The Northern Irishman arrived in Sardegna under pressure to deliver a clean rally after failing to score points in the previous three rounds in Finland, Paraguay and Chile.
However, on the Italian island’s notoriously challenging gravel stages, Armstrong and co-driver Shane Byrne adopted a more measured approach and completed the event without a driving error. The pair did have to stop to change a wheel, but were among five crews to suffer tyre damage on the rough SS4 Monti di Ala – Sa Conchedda – Lerno test.
Making his Sardegna debut, Armstrong recovered to finish seventh as the highest-placed M-Sport-Ford driver. The result eclipsed his eighth-place finishes in Sweden and Japan earlier this year.
“First time here, proper hot conditions, rough roads, narrow places to discover for the first time with one of the biggest rally cars you can drive and fastest too, so it is not an easy job to be neat and clean,” said Armstrong, who successfully trialled a new helmet camera during the event.
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“We have been getting a lot more pressure to have clean rallies and that was the main goal for this rally – to drive and not take any risks – and we managed to do a full event with this strategy, so I think that is positive.
“For sure you want to drive faster to be with the guys at the front, but you have to be realistic with the experience as well, and compared to our team-mates’ pace it has been quite good. We are happy with that.”
While consistency proved a challenge in 2026, Armstrong also showed his potential, claiming a maiden stage win at EKO Acropolis Rally Greece and challenging for top-five finishes in Monte-Carlo and Croatia.
Reflecting on a Rally1 opportunity that came as a surprise last December, Armstrong said he was grateful for the chance to compete at the top level and hoped he had done enough to secure a drive for next year.
“It has been a nice season and good to experience the last year with Rally1 cars,” he added. “It is something that in December last year I thought was a joke that I would get to do it, so to do the full season has been nice.
“We had some really surprising moments throughout. We had a stage win and the Super Sunday in Croatia and some really good pace that we could have capitalised on with a bit more consistency to have maybe a top five or a podium.
“We need to continue with the consistency and now everything changes for next year and hopefully we can be there and be even stronger.”
