The Munchi's Ford World Rally Team celebrated a breakthrough result on the Rally Japan after getting both of its cars to the finish line in the top eight.

A rally of firsts for the Argentine team, keeping their Ford Focus' on the road was rewarded with a fifth place finish for Luis Perez Companc and seventh place for Federico Villagra, while the latter was also attributed with scoring the team's first stage win.

In fact, Villagra managed a total of three stage wins over the course of the event - albeit on the short super specials - and he steadily rose up the order after a cautious first day. In the end he was delighted to come away with two points.

“For me, this has been a great rally. I didn't have much experience and knew that it was very important to finish and not make a mistake; this was my plan from the start. I was very happy with my stage times during the rally and we have improved a lot from the rallies before.

“I have got closer to Luis and Matthew with my times and the only time they were far ahead was today when they were battling. It is a fantastic feeling to score points in both the drivers' and manufacturers' championship. I never thought we could come here and do that. Luis has been exceptional and I have been happy to back him up. The icing on the cake was to score three fastest stage times. What a wonderful feeling.”

While he didn't score any fastest times, Companc was nonetheless Munchi's lead driver over the course of the event, one that culminated in him having a fierce battle between himself and the sister Ford of Matthew Wilson over the final stages.

Unfortunately for the Argentine, he was not able to hold the Brit at bay and would therefore have to settle for fifth. Nonetheless, he too was thrilled, especially as it was his best ever result in the WRC.

“What a weekend. This has been a fantastic personal result for me and also for the Munchi's team. This is by far my best result and for Federico to back it up and pick up points is also amazing. We started well on Friday in the rough slippery conditions and were careful not to make any mistakes. I didn't want to back off but still had to concentrate hard.

“I really enjoyed the stages on Saturday and I was able to push some more. I got a lot more energy when some of the leading drivers retired and we moved up into the top-five. The stages today I didn't enjoy so much and I didn't want to push so hard.

“I ended up in a very close battle with Matthew and there were some places I knew that I was able to drive hard but others I still had to be careful. I didn't want to throw it all away on the last day. It's been very good work by the team and a fantastic weekend.”