WRC Sardinia: Tanak holds commanding lead amid red flag confusion
Hyundai’s Ott Tanak moved into a commanding Rally Sardinia lead after dominating Saturday’s stages before a red flag triggered confusion on the final test.
The 2019 world champion won six of the day’s eight stages to move into a 46s lead over M-Sport’s Craig Breen, before the final stage of the day ended in bizarre fashion.
Officials threw the red flag to suspend Stage 17 to allow the recovery of Adrien Fourmaux’s stricken M-Sport Ford Puma after the Frenchman ran off the road and crashed out of fifth position. The crew emerged from the incident unscathed.
Third-placed Dani Sordo was first to come across the incident. The Hyundai driver then squeezed by the stricken Puma that had partially blocked the road and completed the stage at a reduced speed and will receive a notional time.
Organisers elected to restart the stage but it appeared a marshal erroneously showed a red flag, resulting in Breen and Tanak slowing to a crawl.
Fourth-placed Pierre-Louis Loubet, who was ahead of Breen and Tanak on the road, completed the stage at normal speed to add to the confusion. It is unclear if the M-Sport driver was shown the red flag.
It is expected national times will be awarded to Breen and Tanak, but organisers are yet to confirm the overall classification for the day. Championship leader Kalle Rovanpera and Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta will however inherit fifth and sixth positions following Fourmaux’s crash.
A brief statement from an FIA spokesperson read: “After the stage restarted following Fourmaux's accident crews were shown a red flag and the FIA is investigation the incident."
Craig Breen, Paul Nagle, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1
Photo by: M-Sport
The afternoon had begun with crews facing incredibly hot conditions in the afternoon with the ambient temperatures hitting more than 35 degrees on top of the already increased cockpit temperatures.
The heat failed to distract Tanak as he swept to his fourth consecutive stage win on Stage 14 after setting a searing pace in his i20 N, despite battling an engine issue.
Tanak emerged 6.2s faster than an improving Kalle Rovanpera to extend his lead over Breen to 37.2s as the latter was forced to drive around a problem with his Puma.
Loubet stepped up his assault on third overall by taking 2.3s out of rival Sordo.
Behind, a soft front left tyre cost Fourmaux 34s dropping as he began to fall into the clutches of Rovanpera in the battle for fifth overall.
Tanak was once again in command on Stage 15 as he notched up his sixth stage win of the rally to increase his lead to 45.0s over Breen as the Irishman dropped 7.8s.
Breen had been battling issue but gave nothing away when quizzed at the stage end.
“The giggling pin fell out of the laughing shaft but I managed to get it back in, so we are okay,” he joked when asked about the problem.
Dani Sordo, Candido Carrera, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Sordo survived a scare 300 metres from the stage end when his i20 N briefly hooked into a ditch on the slippery gravel. However, the Spaniard somehow wrestled the car back to clock the second fastest stage time to move within 12s of Breen.
Katsuta, like Breen, was also managing a radiator issue with his GR Yaris and lost 30s on the test.
The second pass through the afternoon stages saw Tanak remain in unbeaten as he topped the times on Stage 16.
Tanak admitted he wasn’t pushing but was still able to take a second out of Breen to deny the Ford driver a second stage win of the event.
Sordo rode his luck again after his i20 N took a big gulp of water at the water splash and briefly stalled. On this occasion he only lost 1.6s to Loubet in the fight for third.
Evans suffered a far more serious issue as the left rear suspension collapsed on his GR Yaris which put him tint retirement for the second time in as many days. The Welshman tried to keep going before pulling off onto an access road.
Toyota team-mate Katsuta continued to lose time as he carefully nursed his wounded GR Yaris to the finish.
Rally Sardinia is set to host four more stages on Sunday.
Results:
Cla | Driver/Codriver | Car | Total Time | Gap | Interval | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Ott Tanak
Martin Jarveoja |
Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | 2:32'17.300 | |||
2 |
Craig Breen
Paul Nagle |
Ford Puma Rally1 | 2:33'03.300 | 46.000 | 46.000 | |
3 |
Dani Sordo
Candido Carrera |
Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | 2:33'24.100 | 1'06.800 | 20.800 | |
4 |
Pierre-Louis Loubet
Vincent Landais |
Ford Puma Rally1 | 2:33'37.600 | 1'20.300 | 13.500 | |
5 |
Adrien Fourmaux
Alexandre Coria |
Ford Puma Rally1 | 2:34'31.200 | 2'13.900 | 53.600 | |
6 |
Kalle Rovanperä
Jonne Halttunen |
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2:34'40.500 | 2'23.200 | 9.300 | |
7 |
Takamoto Katsuta
Aaron Johnston |
Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2:35'58.700 | 3'41.400 | 1'18.200 | |
8 |
Gus Greensmith
Jonas Andersson |
Ford Puma Rally1 | 2:37'09.100 | 4'51.800 | 1'10.400 | |
9 |
Nikolay Gryazin
Konstantin Aleksandrov |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:38'11.800 | 5'54.500 | 1'02.700 | |
10 |
Jan Solans
Rodrigo Sanjuan |
Citroën C3 Rally2 | 2:38'56.300 | 6'39.000 | 44.500 | |
11 |
Jari Huttunen
Mikko Lukka |
Ford Fiesta Rally2 | 2:39'03.700 | 6'46.400 | 7.400 | |
12 |
Chris Ingram
Craig Drew |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:39'04.200 | 6'46.900 | 0.500 | |
13 |
Marco Bulacia
Marcelo Der Ohannesian |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:39'13.500 | 6'56.200 | 9.300 | |
14 |
Sami Pajari
Enni Mälkönen |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:39'35.200 | 7'17.900 | 21.700 | |
15 |
Eerik Pietarinen
Antti Linnaketo |
Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 2:40'11.500 | 7'54.200 | 36.300 | |
16 |
Emilio Fernández
Axel Coronado |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:41'18.600 | 9'01.300 | 1'07.100 | |
17 |
Mikołaj Marczyk
Szymon Gospodarczyk |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:41'29.700 | 9'12.400 | 11.100 | |
18 |
Bruno Bulacia
Marc Marti |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:43'06.200 | 10'48.900 | 1'36.500 | |
19 |
Martin Prokop
Michal Ernst |
Ford Fiesta Rally2 | 2:43'52.800 | 11'35.500 | 46.600 | |
20 |
Freddy Loix
Pieter Tsjoen |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:44'58.200 | 12'40.900 | 1'05.400 | |
21 |
Rakan Al-Rashed
Hugo Magalhaes |
Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 2:45'54.900 | 13'37.600 | 56.700 | |
22 |
Yohan Rossel
Valentin Sarreaud |
Citroën C3 Rally2 | 2:48'43.800 | 16'26.500 | 2'48.900 | |
23 |
Jourdan Serderidis
Frédéric Miclotte |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:49'04.600 | 16'47.300 | 20.800 | |
24 |
Jean-Michel Raoux
Laurent Magat |
Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 2:49'50.800 | 17'33.500 | 46.200 | |
25 |
Eduard Pons
Alberto Chamorro |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:50'43.100 | 18'25.800 | 52.300 | |
26 |
Diego Jr.
Rogelio Penate |
Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:51'41.400 | 19'24.100 | 58.300 | |
27 |
Pablo Biolghini
Stefano Pudda |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:51'49.300 | 19'32.000 | 7.900 | |
28 |
Silvano Patera
Danilo Fappani |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:55'34.800 | 23'17.500 | 3'45.500 | |
29 |
Jan Černý
Tomáš Střeska |
Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:56'14.100 | 23'56.800 | 39.300 | |
30 |
Gabriele Campagnoli
Nicola Arena |
Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:57'45.300 | 25'28.000 | 1'31.200 | |
31 |
Zoltán László
Tamás Kürti |
Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:58'00.400 | 25'43.100 | 15.100 | |
32 |
Daniel Chwist
Kamil Heller |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:59'10.700 | 26'53.400 | 1'10.300 | |
33 |
Luke Anear
Andrew Sarandis |
Ford Fiesta Rally2 | 3:02'43.100 | 30'25.800 | 3'32.400 | |
34 |
Giuseppe Messori
Pier Paolo |
Škoda Fabia R5 | 3:05'57.400 | 33'40.100 | 3'14.300 | |
35 |
Francesco Tali
Cristina Caldart |
Ford Fiesta Rally2 | 3:10'22.300 | 38'05.000 | 4'24.900 | |
36 |
Timothy Van
Kurt Heyndrickx |
Renault Clio Rally4 | 3:11'11.300 | 38'54.000 | 49.000 | |
37 |
Gianluca Mara
Veronica Cottu |
Peugeot 208 R2 | 3:13'14.300 | 40'57.000 | 2'03.000 | |
38 |
Miguel Díaz-Aboitiz
Jordi Hereu |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 3:16'24.200 | 44'06.900 | 3'09.900 | |
39 |
Gian Paolo
Angelo Tendas |
Peugeot 208 R2 | 3:24'24.900 | 52'07.600 | 8'00.700 | |
40 |
Carlo Covi
Andrea Budoia |
Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 3:27'07.000 | 54'49.700 | 2'42.100 | |
41 |
Giacomo Spanu
Davide Spanu |
Ford Fiesta Rally4 | 3:59'17.600 | 1:27'00.300 | 32'10.600 | |
View full results |
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