Photo of the day: Ford Puma airborne at Rally Croatia

Be honest, when you learned that a hybrid Ford Puma would be replacing the Ford Fiesta as M-Sport’s contender in the World Rally Championship, you reacted with scepticism, didn’t you?

The Puma is after all a crossover, and therefore taller. And therefore less predisposed to going around corners quickly. Kinda important in rallying.

However, the bespoke carbon panels allowed by the new rules this year have allowed the team to lower the roofline, and come the car’s pre-season launch it looked proper… no, that’s exactly the right word. Proper.

Even more so now that it’s being chucked around the countrysides of the world in the way only WRC knows how. Here we see Craig Breen and co-driver Paul Nagle engaging the most difficult kind of opposite lock (the kind where the tyres aren’t, you know, in contact with the ground) on their way to fourth place at Rally Croatia this weekend gone.

The result sees them lie third in the championship behind Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak, plus Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera, who leads the standings by a sizable 29-point margin thanks to his second victory on the bounce in Croatia.

Further back Elfyn Evans - who TG caught up with before the start of the campaign in Monaco - took fifth having suffered multiple punctures along the way.

Next up is Rally Portugal, where it’s been confirmed that nine- and eight-time champions Sebastien Loeb and Sebastien Ogier will both be returning for their second cameos of the campaign. Last time they faced each other in Monte Carlo, it was pretty tasty. Bring on the second helping.