Ott Tanak has ended day three of Rally Italia Sardegna with a 46s advantage over Craig Breen in his Ford Puma.
With the stage being set for a tight fight at the top after day 2, Tanak ramped up the pace as his rivals made mistakes throughout the day.
Esapekka Lappi started the day in the lead after yesterday’s premature end to the day, however, Saturday would not prove kind to the Finn. Lappi had a heavy compression on the opening stage which then sent him and his co-driver flying into a rock that tore off the left rear wheel.
Lappi’s misfortune meant that Tanak was left unchallenged at the front, the Estonian would go on to win six out of the seven stages despite insisting that he wasn’t pushing. The stage that he didn’t win was taken by Craig Breen. The Ford driver started the day third but was able to move into second due to his teammate Pierre-Louis Loubet suffering from a puncture.
Loubet’s issues meant that the Hyundai of Dani Sordo would try to keep up the pressure on the leading Ford but Breen was able to build a decent buffer to the Spaniard on what was a hot and dusty day. With Sordo finishing 20s behind Breen, Loubet ensured he would still keep fourth from Kalle Rovanpera by 51.4s.
Rovanpera’s jump into the top five came courtesy of Adrien Fourmaux crashing his Puma on the final test and bringing out the red flag.
Tomorrow sees the teams tackle the final four stages of the Rally including the Wolf Power stage.
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