Photo Credit: M-Sport It's finally happened: Ott Tanak is a WRC winner. The Estonian M-Sport driver sealed his first ever victory at World Championship level on round seven of the championship in Sardinia, after numerously looking destined to take the top step.
Tanak's win stretches this year's winners' tally to five and adds a further spanner into the works in the fight for the 2017 World Rally Championship title. This result elevates Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja to third in the standings, helping to consolidate M-Sport's lead in the manufacturers race in the process, and was even more impressive considering it was on the roughest and most technical round of the championship: conditions not associated with a Tanak attack. The milestone result marked the first win for an Estonian driver since Markko Martin on Catalunya in 2004, and the first back to back win for M-Sport since Mikko Hirvonen in Finland and Australia back in 2009. The new-time WRC winners took the win ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila who visited the podium for the first time since their emphatic win on February's Rally Sweden in what was a very good weekend for Toyota Gazoo Racing. Faced with hunting Tanak down on day three, it was a slightly erratic performance from the Finn but he can count himself unlucky to have actually lost a position in the championship having beaten both Neuville and Ogier who were ahead of him. Stretching their podium run to five events, Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul took a frustrated third in their Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC. Faced with some road sweeping as second car on the road, Neuville ended the first leg less than 10 seconds shy of the lead but brake issues left him furious and saw him hemorrhage time to his competition. Third trimmed Ogier's title lead to 18 points with six rallies left however. Tanak put in a fantastic performance, but when picking the star of the rally, step forward young Finn Esapekka Lappi. Competing in just his second ever rally in a World Rally Car, the Yaris WRC pilot claimed his maiden stage win on Friday and added a further five to his tally across the weekend to take the Power Stage, win the most stages of any driver during the event and net a fourth overall for himself and the team. At this rate of progression, the opposition should be very worried. If it weren't for brake problems early on Friday Lappi could've easily been on the podium. Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia took fifth overall, their worst result of the year, on an event that was always likely to be a struggle for them as first car on the road on Friday. An early puncture on Saturday only worsened the cause, but the champion's speed on Sunday was impressive seeing him catch and pass Juho Hanninen for fifth in the final test. Hanninen and co-driver Kaj Lindstrom, conversely to Ogier, took their best result of the year in sixth but it could've been so much more. Hanninen led the event on Friday, staying in touch at the front before a mistake damaged his radiator. He kept it together on Saturday but power steering issues slowed him and ultimately he couldn't live with a ramped up World Champion on Sunday. It may not be overly exciting, but seventh was a decent result for Mads Ostberg and Ola Floene. The Norwegian privateers were one of many crews to suffer a puncture on Saturday, but the angry Ostberg, ever the showman, took it out on the famous Micky's Jump and leaped the furthest of any of the competitors, to back up his winning leaps over Colin's Crest (Sweden) and Fafe (Portugal). The weekend was soured by broken suspension in the Power Stage. Despite all the words being of no pre-event targets, neither Citroen Racing or Andreas Mikkelsen can be happy with eighth overall in Sardinia. Mikkelsen was drafted in to replace Stephane Lefebvre on the Mediterranean island after Citroen's dismal start to life in this new era of the WRC, but struggled after little time in the car. A broken differential and a puncture hampered him, but the Norwegian looked far from his rally winning best and to be honest would probably have finished just as strongly at the wheel of an R5 Skoda, but it's too early to make judgement. Andreas will get another shot at success, more on that below. Eric Camilli (Fiesta R5) and WRC2 winner Jan Kopecky completed the Sardinian top 10, with the Czech ace maintaining Skoda's 100% start to 2017. With 13 new generation WRC cars entered and five missing from this article thus far, you know what's coming next. And more often than not, Kris Meeke has found himself down the bottom of a 2017 This Is Rally review. Sardinia is no different. After wrestling the lead off of Juho Hanninen's Toyota, Meeke misjudged a fast section of road, struck the undergrowth and flipped his C3 WRC. The damage was sufficient enough to damage the roll cage and ensure the Northern Irishman headed back to Emerald Isle two days early. To rub salt into the wounds, after the rally it was announced that with Mikkelsen staying with the team in Poland, Meeke will miss the lightning fast event with Stephane Lefebvre returning to the fold. This marks a sudden turn in Meeke's fortunes, as 12 months ago he was on the back of an easy Portugal win and on the way to a historic victory in Finland. But the performances haven't been good enough, with mistakes on day one of the last three rallies. It's important to stress that this isn't permanent, and it has been done, as Citroen claim, for the best interests of the team. But ultimately this also is in the best interest of Meeke. This gives him a chance to take a step back, let the pressure ease a little, reassess, recharge the batteries and go again in Finland. It's no bad thing as let's be honest Meeke was imperious last year, and that was during a bit-part campaign. Citroen's other pilot Craig Breen retired on Friday of the Italian round of the WRC after a heavy landing on a rock sidelined his C3. Elfyn Evans and Dan Barritt were tipped to go well in Sardinia but ran wide on a tightening left hander and broke a wheel in the undergrowth. Dani Sordo's event was plagued with turbo issues. The Spaniard had the pace to fight at the front so this was a shame. But his event was nowhere near as gut-wrenching as team mate Hayden Paddon and Sebastian Marshall's was. The Kiwi-British pair led the event at the end of Friday after a cautious approach, with this partnership just two events old. However, Paddon hugged one left hander a little too much on Saturday, resulting in his Hyundai running wide and setting a wheel alight. "A stupid mistake" that "let everyone down" was how Paddon described it, and it's hard to argue with him. The weekend was capped off with a violent smash into a wall on Sunday. But rest assured, Paddon is back. He just needs to get it to the end. Poland is up next for the WRC, a rally Ott Tanak has made his own the past two years despite not actually winning it. Ogier has a good record there too, while Neuville's purple patch continues. Excited? Yep, so am I.
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January 2018
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