Munchi's Ford World Rally team leader
Federico Villagra equalled his best ever result by finishing seventh on the Corona Rally Mexico last weekend.
That result in combination with the fifth place finish notched up by 'guest' driver
Henning Solberg saw the outfit begin its ten event campaign by scoring six points in total, something that puts its ahead of
Suzuki and into fifth place in the manufacturers' championship.
Villagra was delighted to see the squad get the year off to such a strong start and while he finished around 13 minutes off
Matthew Wilson in P6, 'Coyote' had a tough start to the event.
Indeed he received a two minute penalty before the rally had even begun after there was some confusion on reconnaissance of the super special and the crew did eight passes of the 2.21 kilometre stage instead of the permitted four.
He also lost almost five minutes on day 2 when he struggled without any power-steering on SS10 and SS11.
The double Argentine National Rally champion though didn't give in and in the end was rewarded with two points for his efforts.
"This rally has been lots of fun and to finish with my equal best WRC result is a fantastic way to start the year," he said. "The Munchi's team is now ahead of Suzuki in the Manufacturers' Championship after just one event which is a great start.
"Yesterday was very difficult when I lost my power-steering and had to do two stages without it; it is very tough on the arms and shoulders. The team mechanics did a great job to replace the power-steering on the car at service and we didn't get any penalty because we lost no time.
"Apart from this we have had no problems all rally and the car and new Pirelli tyres have felt really good. Now I will head to Rally Argentina, which is in my home town, full of confidence and hopefully we can go even better there."
Villagra will now be joined on the Rally Argentina by Luis-Perez Companc, who returns for his first of three WRC events in the #10 car.
