Toyota team boss Tommi Mäkinen will be going to sleep this evening in the sunny Mediterranean climes of Sardinia this evening with a massive smile on his face…
All this down to one man; his number one driver, the young Estonian rally star, Ott Tänak, who crossed the finish line for Day 2 of this year’s Rally Italia Sardegna having taken a clean sweep of all six of the day’s special stages.
Despite today being the longest, hardest, and most gruelling part of the rally, Tänak took everything, including all six stage wins, in his stride; ending the day with a 25.9sec advantage in his Toyota Yaris WRC over Friday’s leader, Hyundai’s Dani Sordo.
M-Sport Ford’s Teemu Suninen was a further 17.0sec behind in third in a Ford Fiesta WRC who is now starting to show genuine pace after being given the chance to drive for the Blue Oval by team boss Malcolm Wilson.
Having arrived this morning on the start ram in an uncharacteristic third place overnight, Mäkinen’s Estonian super star took over the lead of the rally when he crossed the finish boards on the last of this morning’s three tests.
He then extended his initial 6.4s advantage to nearly half a minute when the same three stages were repeated this afternoon.
No one had an aswer to Tänak’s outrageous pace over the very rough Sardinian roads. First up to challenge Tänak was Hyundai’s Dani Sordo who finished second in all three morning tests, while Suninen took over the “Tänak challenge” in the afternoon, likewise taking three second places on the three stages.
Tänak’s mix of Michelin’s Medium and Hard compounds for the morning loop was complemented the more enduring Hard compounds only for the afternoon loop allowed him to conquer the uncompromising rock strewn tracks that stages had now become after the full field had already passed through them in the morning.
“To win all the stages is great, but my main priority is the rally win, stage wins make no difference,” Tänak said this evening. “It was a good fight today; Dani was pushing hard and did a really good job. I tried to be careful this afternoon because it was really rough in places.”
Sordo lost vital time earlier in the day when his Hard compound shod i20 WRC had to endure constant wheel-spin on the rocky surfaces of the stages. M-Sport’s Teemu Suninen meanwhile was a very happy rally driver, for once putting some – but not all – caution to the wind and showing some of his undoubted talent now with the highly experienced Jarmo Lehtinen’s sitting next to him for the first time.
M-Sport’s Elfyn Evans and Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen fought tooth and nail for bragging rights to fourth place. They swapped times all day until Evans overcame his Norwegian opposition to end the day on top, but still only 7.9s up on Mikkelsen.
Tänak’s Toyota teammate Kris Meeke was in solid sixth place, driving conservatively, but sadly dropped to eighth when the Ulsterman had to stop and change a puncture on the final stage of the day. This promoted a largely anonymous Thierry Neuville up to sixth, but still almost a minute adrift of team-mate Mikkelsen. The Belgian had struggled to find a rhythm all rally and compounded matter with incorrect tyre choices.
Completing the top ten was Citroën’s Esapekka Lappi in seventh, Juho Hänninen in the fourth Toyota Yaris WRC in ninth and leading WRC2 Pro driver Kalle Rovanperä in his Skoda Fabia R5 in 10th.
It was another say of trials and tribulations for reining WRC Champion and current points leader Sébastien Ogier who, after coming back after a crash on Friday hit another rock and this time broke his C3 WRC’s rear suspension arm. He and co-driver Julian Ingrassia managed a roadside fix before limping through the final stage and into the safe haven of the Alghero service.
Sunday’s final leg is the shortest of the rally (41.9km) with two loops of just two stages, culminating in the picture-postcard Wolf Power Stage along the west coast of the Italian island.
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