Matthew Wilson produced a performance deemed to be his 'best ever' by father Malcolm Wilson on Wales Rally GB after bringing his Stobart VK M-Sport Focus home in sixth place on the World Rally Championship season finale.
Wilson went into the final day looking to complete a hat-trick of points-scoring finishes following solid performances in both Japan and Ireland and faced the prospect of fighting with Subaru works man Chris Atkinson through four stages run once again in challenging weather conditions in the Welsh forests.
Outpacing the Aussie on the opening stage of the day, Wilson was able to give himself a bit of a buffer to the Impreza and despite a small slide off the road on one stage, he took the position by just under a minute once the 17th and final stage was completed. As a result of his sixth place, Wilson ends the season in eleventh place in the championship standings.
"We had a really great morning and it was important to get in front of Chris today," he said. "Weather conditions made things difficult this morning but there was actually quite a lot of grip on the stages. We found some good rhythm today and good pace on all four stages.
"I couldn't have asked for anything more, all three days have been great and on the last stage today I had the luxury of backing off a bit as we had a comfortable gap ahead of Chris. For the whole event I tried to keep it neat and tidy and just drive to my pace notes.
"For me it has been a great personal performance as all the top drivers are still in the event and we have claimed this result totally on merit."
With Jari-Matti Latvala setting ten fastest stage times over the three days of action, it was an encouraging performance for the Stobart team – even though the end result wasn't enough to see off the challenge of Subaru for third in the manufacturers' standings. However, team principal Malcolm Wilson was still a happy man.
"It wasn't the dream result we were all hoping for but what a performance by Jari-Matti; fastest on all gravel stages yesterday and today is a great achievement," he said. "I would say this is Matthew's best ever performance on a world championship event, he has really upped the pace over the last three events and it is a very encouraging end to the year for him.
"Henning didn't get off to the best of starts but he has put in a steady drive and gained more experience of the rally in what were extremely difficult driving conditions."
