Munster made his debut behind the wheel of a Rally1 car last autumn and secured a full programme for this year with M-Sport Ford through his supporters. At the beginning of the year, the gap to the leaders was dreadful, but in Poland, the 25-year-old managed to make the time gap on the special stages more manageable.
Ultimately, Munster finished in seventh place, leaving behind Toyota’s much more experienced Takamoto Katsuta. In Poland, the gap to the leader was just over a couple of minutes at the end of the race, compared to nearly seven minutes in the previous rally in Sardinia.
“We are quite satisfied with our pace, and we had our best stage result in stage four, being second fastest. The gap compared to the fastest has been reduced, so it is a step forward.” Munster said.
“We learned a lot this weekend that we can carry into Rally Latvia, where we will try to benefit from our start position and have a good result.”
Especially beating Katsuta was satisfying for Munster, who also holds a Belgian passport. The Japanese driver was humbled by the newcomer by 8.7 seconds.
“We also managed to keep Takamoto Katsuta behind, who is a far more experienced driver and who is normally performing well on these types of rallies,” Munster told.
“We missed out on a point on the Power Stage by a couple of seconds, but overall I’m happy about the weekend.”
Rally Latvia will be held from the 18th to the 21st of July. After that, the competition for points will take place on the gravel roads of Central Finland at the beginning of August.
