This result marks the second time this season that the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team has placed two Ford Puma Rally1 cars in the top five overall.
The rally kicked off in spectacular fashion for Fourmaux, who led a WRC event for the first time in his career after winning SSS1 by a razor-thin margin of 0.5 seconds. His flawless run through Toyota Stadium set a strong tone for Friday’s challenges.
Friday, however, brought new hurdles as Fourmaux tackled Rally Japan’s demanding stages for essentially the first time. Struggling with car setup early on, he dropped to fifth by the midday tyre-fitting zone. After adjustments at remote service, he regained his rhythm and pushed harder in the afternoon to gain back a position. A strategic move to fit external lamp pods before SS7 proved pivotal, helping him navigate fading light and reclaim third position, overtaking home favourite Takamoto Katsuta.
Heading into overnight service in third, Fourmaux’s team made further refinements to his Ford Puma Rally1. These paid dividends on Saturday, as he posted top-five times and battled fiercely with Toyota drivers Katsuta and Sébastien Ogier for podium positions. By the end of the day, Fourmaux was in fourth, just 8.4 seconds off third place.
Sunday brought a dramatic shift. When Ott Tänak crashed out, Fourmaux capitalized, moving back into third. A determined and consistent drive, including a sixth-fastest time in the Power Stage, secured his first-ever WRC Tarmac podium in Japan—a career milestone and a thrilling conclusion to the season.
Munster and Louka also delivered a strong performance in Japan. They adopted a cautious approach on Friday, grappling with challenging road conditions, tyre choices, and car handling. Despite these obstacles, Munster maintained a steady pace, finishing the day in sixth.
Saturday proved transformative for Munster, who opened with the second-fastest time of the day. Gaining confidence, he remained competitive throughout and defended his position against top-tier rivals. His consistent pace and clean driving kept him in sixth by day’s end.
When Tänak retired on Sunday, Munster moved into fifth overall. Despite the technical and slippery stages, he maintained focus and finished strong, wrapping up a season of development with the Ford Puma Rally1 and securing another valuable result for the team.
Richard Millener, Team Principal, said:
“We knew the Puma can be competitive on Tarmac, and this weekend both Adrien and Greg delivered. Although Adrien needed to make quite a few changes to find his top pace, he never gave up and his persistence has resulted in his fifth podium of the year - a fantastic end to the season for him and Alex. Really well done to them both. For Greg and Louis another awesome weekend as well, just showing their development and improvements since the beginning of the year.
"For me personally, it’s been a fantastic season, we have a great team, we have made some great memories together this year and I’m so proud of what we have all achieved together! They all deserve some well earned rest for a few weeks now!”
Adrien Fourmaux, Third Overall, said:
“As we expected, it's been a really challenging rally with really tricky conditions from the beginning.The conditions have been drying up all weekend, so where we have improved the pace we’ve been fighting for the podium.
“From Saturday morning it's been a really nice fight with Takamoto Katsuta and Seb Ogier. It’s been really nice to end the season with another podium, my first one on Tarmac with the Ford Puma Rally1. It’s been a really great season for us, we always want more that’s for sure, but still we have some really nice positive results so it’s been good for my comeback to Rally1.
“Thanks to everyone at M-Sport for the season, there’s been really great commitment from everybody and we’ve had a great feeling from the start. Alex and I really appreciate the hard work from everyone.”
Grégoire Munster, Fifth Overall, said:
“I’m just happy to get back-to-back top five results and finish the season on a positive note. I think our pace on Saturday was really positive with a second-fastest time and two third-fastest times. At some points we struggled with the set up of the car but we always reacted quite well and managed to find solutions, so there was a lot of good learning for me as a driver working with engineers.
“It was a good way to finish the year and I just want to thank all the team for their hard work all throughout the season and for their guidance, it has helped me perform and learn a lot as a driver."
