Jon Armstrong admitted that last weekend’s Rome-based round of the European Rally Championship was a “very tough event” after he and co-driver Eoin Treacy secured a 20th-placed finish in their Ford Fiesta Rally2.
Armstrong was sitting in fourth position in the ERC Championship standings prior to the Rally di Roma Capitale 2024. He was hoping to strengthen that position on an event that had given him a win in the Rally3 category last season.
Still, this time around he struggled to match the pace of the front runners from the outset and a series of minor issues combined with an error at a timing control resulted in his lowest ERC finish of the year.
“It was a very tough event for us,” he acknowledged.
“We struggled to get the right rhythm and tried lots of different changes with the car set-up. We made some improvements, but ultimately we couldn’t have a consistent rhythm from one stage to the next. It wasn’t so easy.”
On the second special stage of the rally, Jon clipped a rock on the tight tarmac Italian roads, and although he escaped a puncture he was back in sixteenth overall. The temperatures were proving an issue for all the crews, with the stifling heat meaning Armstrong was running through the stages with a window open.
His best time of the day came on the fifth stage when he posted the eightth fastest time, but he was suffering with understeering issues and speaking at the end of leg one he admitted that he was frustrated to be back in fifteenth.
"It's hard to be happy completely with where we are,” he conceded. “We struggled with the rhythm and the balance. On these stages, it's hard to get the rhythm. We'll speak to Pancho and the rest of the lads in service and see what we can do tomorrow, but it's just flat out."
Hopes of finding a solution overnight that would propel him up the leaderboard on leg two were tempered by a 19th fastest time on the day’s opener, and even though an impressive fourth fastest time on the tenth stage gave him hope, an error by navigator Treacy at a timing control ended his hopes of a top 10 finish. The car booked in three minutes early to a time control, and the three-minute penalty knocked them further back the leaderboard to 24th overall.
“We made a bit of an error going into one of the timing controls,” acknowledged Armstrong.
“These things happen and drivers make mistakes (as well). We'll keep pushing through and see if we can get a result on the Power Stage."
With championship points on offer for the five fastest stage times over the power stage, which was a repeat of the stage Armstrong notched a fourth fastest time on earlier in the day, hopes were high he could snatch some championship points from a frustrating weekend, but he failed to repeat his earlier heroics even though he recovered to twentieth overall.
“We hit something at the beginning of the stage and the steering has been bent the whole way, lot of vibrations,” he explained.
“Not our weekend. Big thanks to M-Sport, Eoin on the notes and also thanks to the team, Motorsport Ireland Academy, our sponsors.”
Armstrong will be hoping to bounce back to form on the next round of the series, which is the Barum Czech Rally Zlin from August 16-18 .
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