Munster is now starting his second full season as an M-Sport Ford driver. Last year, the Luxembourgish driver showed occasional flashes of speed, but consistent success largely eluded him.
On Friday morning’s loop, Munster was in spectacular form. He set the second-fastest time on both stages and recorded the fastest overall time for the loop.
Munster was 2.5 seconds ahead of Hyundai driver Adrien Fourmaux, who placed second on the loop. Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä finished 5.5 seconds behind Munster, while French veteran Sebastien Ogier trailed by 15 seconds.
Munster, who climbed to fourth place overall, made a different tyre choice from the other WRC stars.
“I think we trusted our tyre choice this morning. It was a bold one, but we had to make it work,” Munster told RallyJournal.com.
“Also, tricky condition is a thing we like; we are used to it in Luxembourg and Belgium. So we had the confidence, and it paid off.”
However, Munster admitted he didn’t expect to outpace the entire field on the loop.
“I don’t know what to say. I just drove the car to the condition. I tried to do my best, and at the end, it looked pretty good. That’s it,” he smiled.
Toyota driver Elfyn Evans leads the rally, ahead of teammate Ogier and Hyundai’s Fourmaux. Munster is 22.5 seconds behind the leader.
M-Sport Ford team principal Richard Millener praised his lead driver for the season.
“I expected him to be competitive on those conditions. Fastest over on the loop is a good surprise. But we just have to be a bit sensible now.”
“As I said to a few people before the rally, if we had a fourth place by the end of the weekend, I’d be very happy. So although it’s hard to not look at, keep going up, the reality is these guys around us are going to get faster and faster. We have to be sensible that we can keep the pace, that we stay on the road and we get the result,” Millener emphasised.
