M-Sport Ford saw both of their drivers finish in the top six overall on last weekend’s Rally Portugal. 

British driver Gus Greensmith and teammate Adrien Fourmaux both completed the first gravel event of the season in the FIA World Rally Championship with a pair of strong results.

Greensmith, who made his top-class WRC debut on the Portugal event two years ago, particularly impressed and took his joint highest finish in the WRC in fifth.

The young Brit possibly possibly could have finished higher too had he not suffered a puncture on the first day of the rally which cost him 50 seconds and also a less-favourable road position as a result. 

“It’s been a really good weekend, I’ve equalled my best result in the World Rally Championship so far, and things look good going forward and that’s important,” said Greensmith. 

“We’ve had some issues but in terms of the pace and performance I’m really happy.

“We put in some good times and would have finished higher up the order had it not been for the puncture on Friday and problem with the engine on Saturday. 

Fourmaux meanwhile, who was making only his second top-class WRC appearance on the Portugal event, secured his second consecutive top six finish on Sunday afternoon. 

The French driver, still only in his fifth season of rallying, again impressed and managed to recover from both a damaged tyre on day one and also a throttle issue early on Saturday.

“I really enjoyed the stages, they were so much fun and the car was really good,” said Fourmaux.

“For sure it was a really difficult rally for my first time here and the knowledge of the stages of the others didn’t help us. 

“But it’s part of the game and on the Felgueiras stage today (Sunday), which hadn’t been used for many years, we were second fastest both times.”

Teemu Suninen also performed strongly in WRC2 and took second in class behind former M-Sport man Esapekka Lappi. Teammate Tom Kristensson took ninth in class.

Suninen will return to driving a Fiesta WRC  on the next round of the season, Rally Italia Sardegna, while Fourmaux will compete in WRC2 in a Rally2-spec Fiesta.