PRESS RELEASE
Armstrong and Byrne recover from an early puncture to take ninth and WRC points on the championship’s fastest gravel rally
Tartu, Estonia – 20 July 2026
Jon Armstrong and co-driver Shane Byrne bounced back from an early tyre setback to claim ninth overall and secure two FIA World Rally Championship points on the rapid gravel roads of Rally Estonia, round nine of the season, aboard their Ford Puma Rally1.
The Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy duo made a strong start on Friday morning, running near the pace of the championship leaders through the opening 21-kilometre Raanitsa stage. An awkward landing over a jump proved costly, however, the impact debeading the front-left wheel and dropping around 30 seconds. In a rally where high speeds meant the time differences were minimal, the early loss forced Armstrong and Byrne to play catch-up for the rest of the weekend, a challenge compounded when they cleaned the loose surface stages on Saturday and Sunday from the front of the running order.
Still, the Fermanagh native demonstrated his growing confidence on Estonia’s high-speed gravel, setting a sixth-fastest time on stage two, Karaski, followed by two seventh-fastest times on Kanepi and Otepaa to hint at the duo’s potential on the fast and flowing stages. Armstrong also enjoyed battles throughout the weekend with the WRC’s second-placed crew of Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston, showcasing his competitive pace against established frontrunners.
Quote – Jon Armstrong
“On a whole, I really enjoyed Rally Estonia,” said Armstrong. “It’s an event where I’ve built up some good experience over the years, so it was nice to be back. I also liked the slightly different format this year, with shakedown on Friday morning before heading straight into the stages.
“Obviously, the opening stage was disappointing. We were right on the pace early on, only 2.2 seconds behind Sami Pajari after 16 kilometres, but then over one of the jumps I took what I thought was the right line. We landed a little awkwardly – not off the road, but with too much load on the front-left wheel – which immediately gave us a puncture.
“We lost around 30 seconds there, and from that point it was always going to be difficult to recover the time. The focus became making the most of the rest of Friday while our road position was still favourable. I think we managed to show some good pace and some promising stage times, and then for the rest of the weekend we just tried to enjoy the conditions and keep learning.
“The difference between running near the front and further back is huge. On Friday, when we were running further down the order, you benefit from much cleaner lines. You can see where the drivers ahead have been braking, where they’re turning in, and whether they’ve been cutting corners, so the road offers a lot more grip.
“It’s definitely nice to have that sort of road position, but we probably needed to capitalise on it a bit better.
“By Saturday, when we were opening the road, some of the stages were incredibly loose, with a layer of fine gravel sitting on top of a hard base. You almost feel like you’re floating across the surface because you don’t get the same traction or drive out of the corners. You spend more time waiting for the grip to come, and that’s the biggest difference.
“The Rally1 car is unbelievable on roads like these. The speed on Friday in particular was just incredible.
“There are corners that you can take completely flat in a Rally1 car where, in something like a Rally3 car, you’d definitely have to brake because of how tight they are. The aero just sucks the car into the road, and over the jumps it feels really impressive as well. We had a couple of hard landings, but overall the car handled them really well.
“You still have to work hard on your driving technique, though. On the really fast, committed sections, once you trust the aero it’s relatively straightforward. The bigger challenge for me is in the narrower, more technical forest sections, where we’re still learning exactly how much angle to carry into the corner and how much speed the car can hold.
“That’s an area we know we can improve, but overall I definitely felt more comfortable as the rally went on, and it’s another step forward in understanding what these cars are capable of.”
Notes to Editors
- Event: Rally Estonia (Round 9 of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship)
- Location: Tartu, Estonia
- Stages: 18 stages
- Distance: 301 competitive kilometres
- Surface: Fast gravel – smooth, high-speed sections with blind jumps and technical forest roads; among the highest average speeds in the WRC, with crews often exceeding 120 kph
- Schedule: Shakedown Friday 17 July; competitive stages Friday 17 to Sunday 19 July, finishing Sunday 19 July
- Result: Ninth overall and two championship points. Ran near the leaders’ pace early before a front-left debead on the opening Raanitsa stage cost around 30 seconds; recovered to set a sixth-fastest (Karaski) and two seventh-fastest stage times (Kanepi, Otepaa) while cleaning the road on Saturday and Sunday
- Driver / Co-driver: Jon Armstrong / Shane Byrne
- Car: Ford Puma Rally1
- Team: M-Sport Ford World Rally Team
- Academy: Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy
- Context: A points-scoring recovery on the championship’s fastest gravel rally, following Armstrong’s maiden WRC stage win at Acropolis Rally Greece, with Rally Finland next
Links for editors
- Official website (home): jonarmstrongrally.com
- Press hub: jonarmstrongrally.com/press
