M-Sport's Ott Tänak claimed his maiden World Rally Championship victory in Italy on Sunday despite a late stage scare which saw him drop a handful of time to the chasing Jari Matti Latvala.
Tänak managed to hold onto his lead to take his first WRC win in 73 starts, with the Estonian holding a 12.3 second advantage in his Ford Fiesta over Latvala's Toyota Yaris at Rally Sardegna.
Thierry Neuville completed the podium in his Hyundai i20, a further 55.4s behind, to reduce Sébastian Ogier's championship advantage to 18 points.
Tänak lost 5.5s of his advantage during stage 16, when a hole in his Fiesta allowed dust to pour into the cockpit, reducing his visibility to zero, which saw him overshoot a junction in the opening Cala Flumini speed test and his car ending up in some bushes. However he quickly recovered from the off.
Esapekka Lappi won the final live TV Power Stage to claim five bonus points in his Yaris, finishing fourth overall, ahead of Ogier, more than three minutes off the lead.
Dani Sordo took four points for second place in the power stage, with Ogier securing three for third. Neuville and Latvala took two and one point respectively.
Overall sixth place went to Toyota's Juho Hänninen ahead of Mads Østberg, Citroën returnee Andreas Mikkelsen and WRC2 leader Jan Kopecky. Eric Camilli completed the leaderboard.
