In a breakthrough weekend forMcErlean, the only blemish for the 26-year-old and co-driver Eoin Treacy was a scare on the penultimate stage when he missed his braking point and lost 45 seconds as he recovered onto the road.
Despite that putting him in the grasp of the chasing SamiPajari, Adrien Fourmaux and Evans, McErlean kept his composure to hold onto fourth place in the final stage.
After a luckless start to the season, in which they had a best finish of eighth, McErlean far surpasses the trio of seventh-places from his debut WRC season last year.
McErlean and Treacy didn’t luck into their best finish, either. When they needed to show flashes of speed they did, and when they needed to control their pace the crew kept their heads.
“We definitely didn’t make it easy for ourselves but honestly, a massive thank to the whole team and every single person who kept believing in us,” an emotional McErlean said.
“It’s been a very tough start to the year and a big thanks to this man beside me [Treacy]. What a rally.”
For his M-Sport team-mate Jon Armstrong, it was another rally of what could have been.
Armstrong, from Northern Ireland, was running in third place and had just set his first fastest stage time in the WRC on Friday before he suffered a double puncture and a turbo failure on his Ford Puma Rally1, which forced him to retire.
The next rally takes place on the fast gravel roads in Estonia from 17-19 July.
Rally Greece results
1. Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landris (Toyota) 3:36:40.7
2. Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai) +58.3 seconds
3. Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota) +3:04.8
4. Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (M-Sport Ford) +4:55.5
5. Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota) +5:02.2
6. Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Coria (Hyundai) +5:08.7
7. Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota) +5:54.9
….
20. Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmundson (Toyota) +15:31.2
21. Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne (Ford) +18:03.6
WRC drivers’ standings
1. Elfyn Evans (GB) 158 points
2. Takamoto Katsuta (Jap) 151
3. Sebastien Ogier (Fra) 125
4. Sami Pajari (Fin) 114
5. Oliver Solberg (Swe)103
6. Adrien Fourmaux (Fra) 97
7. Thierry Neuville (Bel) 95
…
11. Josh McErlean (Irl) 19
13. Jon Armstrong (Irl) 14
