Ott Tanak has said he will take a different approach to the remaining rallies in the 2021 FIA World Rally Championship after his retirement in Sardinia marked his second in two rallies.
Returning under Rally2 restart rules Tanak was able to secure points on the Wolf Power Stage, but unlike in Portugal where he recorded the fastest time and took home the five bonus points, he was only able to secure four bonus points for the second best stage time.
The two retirements both came as the Estonian had comfortable leads on Saturday, impacts with a rock on both occasions shattering the suspension of his Hyundai i20WRC and leave him 57 points adrift of championship leader Sebastien Ogier, with seven rounds left this year.
He said: “There is nothing much to look at anymore,” he said. “Obviously it’s nothing you can change yourself, so for us it’s pretty much like, race-by-race and everywhere we go we try the maximum. I guess end of the year we see if that was enough or not.”
Like his team boss Andrea Adamo at the weekend, Tanak also refused to point the finger at anyone for his two retirements, instead praising the unity in the team and speed that the i20 was currently showing.
“It’s good to feel we had the speed and we can control in places. The team has helped me a lot and they are really behind to help me to get used to the car and now this year we have done some steps as well. I feel the car is fast, just needs a little more reliability.”
The next round of the WRC is the Safari Rally in Kenya, which will really test the i20’s suspension, before the championship makes it second visit to Tanak’s home country Estonia in July.
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