Estonia WRC: Tanak revitalises title bid with home win

Reigning champion Tanak finished 22.2 seconds of Hyundai stablemate Craig Breen to notch up his first win with the Korean manufacturer, while points leader Sebastien Ogier was a further 4.7s back in third place for Toyota.

Helped by three bonus points for the third-fastest time in the Power Stage, It means Tanak is now within 13 points of Ogier's lead with only Rally Turkey, Rally Italy and the Ypres Rally left on the 2020 WRC schedule.

Ogier has a buffer of nine points over Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans was second-fastest on the Power Stage and fourth overall. Power Stage winner Kalle Rovanpera completed the top five.

With first and second place held comfortably overnight, Tanak and Breen merely had to minimise the risks in the six final stages and they successfully kept drama to a minimum – bar one heart-stopping moment for Tanak, when a rut almost sent him into a ditch.

Disaster was averted at the cost of only a couple of tenths of a second and Tanak kept his stranglehold even as the pursuing Toyotas were able to win every stage of the day. Evans took the first stage of the morning, Ogier would claim two and Rovanpera ended up winning three, including the Power Stage.

The only fly in Toyota’s ointment on the closing day was the loss of its fourth car, wheeled by Takamoto Katsuta, when he rolled out of sixth place. 

Erstwhile championship leader, and biggest loser from the WRC’s Estonian adventure, was Thierry Neuville in the third Hyundai. The Belgian crashed out on Saturday and restarted hoping just to save his tyres for an all-out assault on the bonus Power Stage points. 

As he attempted to launch into the stage, however, something was clearly amiss with the car’s electronics and the i20 limped through to the finish. His hopes of leading Hyundai’s charge in the three remaining rallies of 2020 would appear to be bleak.

Hyundai also lost its fourth car, a 2019-spec i20 WRC entered for reigning WRC2 champion Pierre-Louis Loubet, when his steering gave out on the second stage of the day.

M-Sport was the benefactor and gained valuable points as Teemu Suninen and Esapekka Lappi finished in sixth and seventh respectively, with Gus Greensmith coming home eighth.

In WRC2 the Citroen of Mads Ostberg was never really challenged and was followed on to the podium by M-Sport’s French hopeful Adrien Fourmaux. Hyundai's Nikolai Gryazin had been set to take the runner-up spot until he suffered a puncture on the final stage, allowing Fourmaux through and handing third place to Swedish privateer Pontus Tidemand.

Finishing in front of all the WRC2 runners however, in ninth overall was Oliver Solberg, claiming his first WRC3 victory in emphatic style. 

Rally results (top 10):

Cla	Driver/Codriver	Car	Class	Total Time	Gap
1	Ott Tanak Martin Jarveoja	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	RC1	1:59'53.600
2	Craig Breen Paul Nagle	Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC	RC1	2:00'15.800	22.200
3	Sébastien Ogier Julien Ingrassia	Toyota Yaris WRC	RC1	2:00'20.500	26.900
4	Elfyn Evans Scott Martin	Toyota Yaris WRC	RC1	2:00'35.500	41.900
5	Kalle Rovanperä Jonne Halttunen	Toyota Yaris WRC	RC1	2:01'12.300	1'18.700
6	Teemu Suninen Jarmo Lehtinen	Ford Fiesta WRC	RC1	2:02'33.200	2'39.600
7	Esapekka Lappi Janne Ferm	Ford Fiesta WRC	RC1	2:02'45.600	2'52.000
8	Gus Greensmith Elliott Edmondson	Ford Fiesta WRC	RC1	2:04'47.400	4'53.800
9	Oliver Solberg Aaron Johnston	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5	RC2	2:07'32.200	7'38.600
10	Mads Ostberg Torstein Eriksen	Citroën C3 R5	RC2	2:08'10.900	8'17.300
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