Millener: "We're punching above our weight"

The Briton is delighted with his squad’s performance across the first half of the season, but he insists there’s more to come from Cockermouth on the other side of the summer break.

M-Sport’s first-half highlights have included four podium finishes for Adrien Fourmaux – including that slightly unexpected third place at Secto Rally Finland – as well as a stunning Tet Rally Latvia drive from Mārtiņš Sesks and Grégoire Munster’s ever-improving pace.

“I’m really happy with the first half of the season,” said Millener. “Adrien’s return to the team and his development in terms of speed, approach and maturity has been one of the talking points of 2024 so far. He’s been fantastic. But there’s been so much more. It’s been great to work with Grég and to see his confidence and speed improving, and then there was Mārtiņš in Poland and Latvia – what a fantastic couple of events.

“But above all of that, I’m so proud of the whole M-Sport team. Once again I feel we’re punching above our weight and really demonstrating to the world what this team and the Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid is capable of. We know we have a car capable of winning and we have crews and a team with the ability and desire to match that.

“The repair on Grégoire’s car in Finland was an example of this team’s dedication, tenacity, resilience and ability – we had four hours and the team worked another miracle. It’s what we do. We’re going to build on this in the second half of the year, we’ve got more to come across the board. The run-in to the summer break was fairly frantic with three rallies in such a short space of time, we want everybody to get some rest now and come back absolutely flying high in Greece.”