The Team Stobart M-Sport Ford’s of Henning Solberg and Matthew Wilson hold sixth and seventh place respectively at the end of the second full day of action at Wales Rally GB.
The Ford Focus RS WRC team-mates improved on their morning start positions by one place, despite the crews reporting very slippery and wet road conditions.
“We need to find more pace to keep up with the top five but I’m driving as fast as I can,” said Solberg. “It’s very slippery out there and the conditions this afternoon were much worse that they were this morning.”
Britain’s leading FIA World Rally Championship driver Matthew Wilson had no major problems on Day 2 of his home rally but reported the weather has wreaked havoc with the roads.
“We ran wide on Stage 12 and had a half spin which cost us time. Stage 14 was very difficult in the tarmac section as everything has become so muddy and then on the last stage we had a problem with the mounting on the right hand side of the light pod,” said Wilson.
Chinese team-mate Liu Chao Dong is currently lying 35th in the team’s other Ford Focus RS WRC.
“We had an issue at the end of Stage 10 when we missed a left corner after going too fast. The rest has been fine – the car is going well and it’s been fun driving in the dark,” said Dong.