Italy breakthrough fuels Munster's Poland ambitions

Having previously registered a seventh overall in the WRC, the Italian island event was Munster’s maiden top-five finish at the sport’s highest level. He moved into that position on Saturday afternoon and remained there throughout the Alghero-based event’s final day.

The Luxembourg driver said: “We reached our best result in the WRC, so we’re very happy with this. There’s still plenty of work to do and pace to find, but we’re always going in the right direction.

“We now need to build on that and keep the momentum going into the next few events which are a bit different from Italy.”

M-Sport’s team principal Richard Millener congratulated Munster and co-driver Louis Louka.

He said: “We know Sardinia is a complicated event and that result was a really great achievement for them both. It’s really important that they’re taking the experience and learning from these rallies,, they’re doing that and now they can look forward to the next three events, which are faster and slightly different in nature.

“We’re looking forward to seeing that progression continue.”