Jon Armstrong dominated Rally Croatia but missed out on the European Rally Championship title.
The M-Sport driver, who won his first ERC event in Wales at the previous round, led from the first stage to take a commanding win in Croatia by 45.7 seconds from ex-WRC driver Mads Ostberg.
To have an outside chance of claiming the title, Armstrong needed to win the rally and secure maximum points in the power stage – and duly delivered – but leader Mikolaj Marczyk finished third to secure the championship.
He and co-driver Shane Byrne won all but one of Saturday’s six stages to hold a 27-second lead overnight.
Andrea Mabellini was Marczyk’s closest challenger heading into the rally, but the Italian’s title hopes ended after a crash on stage four.
That left a battle between the Polish driver and Armstrong on Sunday’s wet final four stages.
Armstrong controlled his margin to win, but Marczyk finished higher than the seventh place he needed to win the ERC title for the first time with an overall tally of 154 points, six clear of his rival.
