Ott Tanak claimed his first victory with his new squad and M-Sport’s first since Rallye Monte-Carlo last year. The Estonian survived a late scare to win by 18.7s to Hyundai’s Craig Breen. A fumbled team order meant that the Irishman finished ahead of Neuville by 1.3s.
Tanak started the final day by extending his lead over Breen on SS16. The Estonian created an 11.6s gap to his Hyundai rival despite having a minor scare at a braking point in the stage. Breen responded in the next stage, however, outpacing Tanak by 3.1s to cut the lead back to 8.5s.
In the battle for the final spot on the podium, Kalle Rovanpera closed the gap to Thierry Neuville with the advantage of starting with four fresh tyres paying dividends. 1.1s separated the two heading into the last two stages of the rally. The Belgian replied by fitting fresh tyres and winning the stage by 3.8s to Breen, but more importantly, Neuville gained 6s on Rovanpera to re-open the gap to 7.1s
Drama struck though before the final stage as Breen was handed a 10s time penalty for arriving at regroup a minute late. This dropped the Irishman to third with his full-time teammate, Neuville promoted to second place before the Wolf Power Stage.
Neuville was the first of the top three to finish the stage but made a mistake when he nearly overshot a junction 8.7km into the test. This meant that the likely team order that put Neuville ahead of Breen, failed.
“It wasn’t a good stage,” Neuville commented at the finish. “I was a bit scared in the brakings and I was afraid to overshoot. We are here. It was an incredible weekend, a tough weekend, but a great weekend for the team overall. All the drivers did a good job and the car was fast. That’s the positive from this weekend.”
This meant Breen finished 1.8s in front of his teammate and in second place. Breen was delighted with the result but acknowledged that it wasn’t the plan heading into the final stage.
“That wasn’t the plan, but I had no way of knowing. We’re happy – it’s been an incredible weekend and great to be back at the front again,” said Breen.
With Hyundai failing to put Neuville in front of Breen and costing the Irishman time, all that was left to do was for Ott Tanak to bring home the victory in what is his first for M-Sport Ford in only his second start.
“It obviously means a lot to me, to come into a new car and deliver to these guys at M-Sport. It’s a big effort for them to fight against such big manufacturers. I am sure they are getting quite a bit of stress from me, but as long as it’s delivering then we are all winning. It’s great to be part of this team,” said Tanak.
Esapekka Lappi took the power stage honours followed by Elfyn Evans and Rovanpera with the top 5 covered by 0.8s.
Overall standings:
- Tanak – +2hr 25min 54.5s
- Breen – +18.7s
- Neuville – +20.0s
- Rovanpera – +25.1s
- Evans – +1min 24s
- Loubet – +5min 59s
Next up, the teams head to Mexico on 16th – 19th March where Sebastien Ogier will return at the wheel of the Toyota GR Yaris Rally 1.
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