Best WRC finish for McErlean as Ogier wins in Greece

Best WRC finish for McErlean as Ogier wins in GreeceImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Josh McErlean came through a late scare to finish in fourth place for his best finish in the WRCByAndy GrayBBC Sport NI journalistPublished22 minutes agoMotorsport Ireland driver Josh McErlean secured his best finish in the World Rally Championship in fourth place, as Sebastien Ogier won at Rally Greece.Toyota driver Ogier, who is a nine-time champion driving in a part-time campaign, prevailed over Hyundai’s Theirry Neuville in a thrilling battle.Ogier held a 1.7 second advantage heading into the penultimate stage but Neuville picked up a puncture and lost just under one minute to drop out of the battle for the win.Neuville still finished second, 58.3 seconds down on Ogier, and Takamoto Katsuta boosted his title hopes by coming home in third, ahead of M-Sport driver McErlean.Championship leader Elfyn Evans, whose charge up the order on Saturday was also halted by a puncture, finished in seventh.After opening the road on Friday, a big disadvantage on the rocky, gravel stages in Greece, the Wales driver had recovered up the order and was challenging McErlean for fourth but a puncture on Saturday’s final dropped him to seventh, where he would finish the rally.To add insult to injury for Evans, his nearest challenger Katsuta also claimed more Super Sunday and Power Stage points to cut the advantage at the top of the standings to just seven points.After claiming maximum points in the rally, with the overall win and maximum points in both Super Sunday and the Power Stage, Ogier is now within 33 points of Evans. “Things were looking pretty okay by Saturday afternoon. We struggled a bit with the puncture on the last one yesterday and another one this morning,” stated Evans.”I’m a bit disappointed this time, but that’s part of the game and we have to move on to the next one.”McErlean fifth at Rally Greece as Evans charge stalls