Armstrong ahead after day one in Ypres Rally Belgium 14.08.2021: Jon Armstrong stormed to the front of the Junior WRC field on the opening day of stages of Rally Ypres building a commanding lead. The Northern Irishman had a perfect opening loop, taking four stage wins including four highly sought after Wolf Sta

Jon Armstrong stormed to the front of the Junior WRC field on the opening day of stages of Rally Ypres building a commanding lead.
 


The Northern Irishman had a perfect opening loop, taking four stage wins including four highly sought after Wolf Stage Win Points but they were closely contested.
 


Ending the day second was Estonian driver Robert Virves rebounding from a poor performance on Rally Estonia. Virves delivered consistently strong stage times, keeping Armstrong honest for stage wins and extending his advantage over third.
 


Sami Pajari seemed to struggle for a good rhythm in the opening loop, losing time to Armstrong and headed into the mid-rally service in fourth. During the second loop, Pajari bounced back with strong form, catching and passing fellow countryman Lauri Joona in the classification to end the day in third but almost one minute behind rally leader Armstrong.
 


Following a dramatic crash on shakedown, Martins Sesks had a slow start, citing a lack of confidence in Ypres’s infamous cuts. He found some pace in the second loop to claim a Wolf Stage Win point on stage five, just 0.9 seconds ahead of Armstrong.
 


William Creighton made a strong start to Ypres Rally with a pair of second placed times on the opening two stages. He was up on the splits during the third stage until a faulty oil pressure sensor forced him to temporarily stop in the stage seeing him lose over two minutes and drop to sixth. The Irish rookie returned with more motivation than ever in the evening, finally claiming his first ever Junior WRC stage win on the seventh and final competitive stage of the day.
 


By the time the field of Fiesta Rally4s returned to the Ypres service park, Armstrong was sitting pretty with a 50 second lead over Virves, full of confidence and with five Wolf Stage Wins in his pocket.
 



Maciej Woda, FIA Junior WRC Championship Manager, said: “Today has been a very exciting day of competition and we can finally say all of this year’s drivers have taken Wolf Stage Win points which underlines just how competitive these drivers are! Jon has been incredibly impressive all day, with some strong performances.



It is not easy to take a perfect loop in Junior WRC this year which highlights how well he and Phil performed. His competitors didn’t make it easy for him though, William Creighton was right on his case in the opening two stages and it is shame he was hampered by a technical issue so early on.



William showed real maturity and determination though, coming back with a stage win which he thoroughly earned and totally deserved after coming close so many times this season. Robert Virves has really surprised me on this rally too, he has very strong pace on the tarmac and there is still a long way to go yet, so it will be interesting to see how he performs tomorrow.”

Jon Armstrong, FIA Junior WRC Rally Leader, said: “It’s been a good day. We’re just being consistent and driving to the pace notes that we made in recce. We had one moment this afternoon. In one of the cuts, the car slid wide, and we bent the rear axle. We had to do two stages like this, but it didn’t affect our pace too much.”




 - Seb Scott, photo WRC