Motorsport Ireland’s Josh McErlean has ended Friday’s running at Rally Greece in a battle for the podium in fourth place.

It is the strongest day of the season for the M-Sport driver, who has shown impressive pace and stayed out of trouble on the treacherous gravel roads as several drivers hit trouble.

Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville leads the rally by 9.7 seconds over Sebastien Ogier, while Adrien Fourmaux is 27.7 seconds clear of McErlean and co-driver Eoin Treacy in the battle for third.

Opening the road, which is disadvantageous on the stoney, gravel roads as the first drivers into the stage clean the road for the cars behind, championship leader Elfyn Evans is seventh after seven stages.

Compared to Toyota team-mates Oliver Solberg and Sami Pajari, who both had issues and are down the order, Wales’ Evans and co-driver Scott Martin had a solid day and will benefit from an improved road position for the rest of the rally.

He is one place and 35 seconds behind his title rival Takamoto Katsuta and his co-driver, Aaron Johnston from Northern Ireland.

Despite a strong day for McErlean, there was heartbreak for their team-mates Jon Armstrong and Shane Byrne, who were running in third and had just claimed a first fastest stage time in the WRC before the crew were forced to retire with a turbo issue on his Ford Puma.

Armstrong, from Northern Ireland, has shown real flashes of speed in his debut year but has had a luckless campaign. The retirement from two punctures and a mechanical failure at the same stage in stage six took him out of the hunt for a first WRC podium.

Solberg crashed out of eighth place on the final stage of Friday when he slid off the road and got stuck on a bank.

If McErlean can hold on to his position it would represent his best WRC finish, which is current three seventh-placed finishes from his debut Rally1 season in 2025.

However, with 10 stages remaining over Saturday and Sunday and a number of front-running drivers behind him, McErlean will have to continue his strong pace and hope to avoid the bad luck that plagued Armstrong on Friday.

“It’s quite a nice position to be in, it was a solid day and we stayed out of trouble as much as possible,” said McErlean.

“We wanted to get a good road position for tomorrow. We’ve achieved that but tomorrow is a new day.”

Rally Greece (after stage 7/17)

1. Thierry Neuville/Martin Wydaeghe (Hyundai) 1:26:48.2

2. Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota) +9.7 seconds

3. Adrien Fourmaux/Alex Coria (Hyundai) +42.4

4. Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (M-Sport Ford) +1:10.1

5. Martins Sesks/Renars Francis (M-Sport Ford) +1:16.9

6. Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota)+1:33.2

7. Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota)+2:08.4

DNF Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmundson (Toyota)

DNF Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne (M-Sport Ford)