Greensmith We need a reset

Greensmith was the only Puma driver not to retire from the asphalt fixture as colleagues Craig Breen and Adrien Fourmaux both suffered crashes whilst running inside the top five. 

His rally wasn’t without its dramas, either. An off-road excursion on Saturday morning broke a rear brake disc on Greensmith’s car and he haemorrhaged time, limping through two more stages before the respite of service. 

The Briton eventually finished 19th overall, almost 20 minutes back from winner Ott Tänak.

“A good thing for everyone right now would be to just get on the flight and get home,” exclaimed an exasperated Greensmith at the end of Sunday’s Wolf Power Stage. “Everyone needs to have a few days to themselves and then we should all get together next week and go again.

 “When things aren’t going right and it keeps not going right, you just need to take a couple of days off and take a reset.”

Despite the disappointing weekend, Greensmith insists that better results are within reach of the car and its drivers and believes they will come sooner rather than later. 

“It’s in the car, it’s in the drivers and it’s in the team to get wins and to be on the podium, but you have to look at yourselves when the same things keep happening,” he continued. 

“Unfortunately, that has been the case with us, so we just need to go away and have a couple of days and reset.

“It will come good because everybody is working hard. The team is trying its best and the drivers are trying their best. Eventually it will all just click into place and everything will be fine.”

M-Sport will run a mighty six Pumas at next month’s EKO Acropolis Rally Greece (8 - 11 September). 

Sébastien Loeb - who gave the team its only win of the year at Rallye Monte-Carlo in January - returns to the line-up, as does Pierre-Louis Loubet. Greensmith is also joined by regulars Breen and Fourmaux along with gentleman driver Jourdan Serderidis.