Tanak dominates for Rally Finland victory

Ott Tanak has stormed to victory at Rally Finland to brighten his World Rally Championship title credentials with both Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier struggling.

Ott Tanak has stormed to victory at Rally Finland to brighten his World Rally Championship title credentials with both Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier struggling down the order.

Tanak tightened his grip at the top of the times on SS7 over Citroen’s Mads Ostberg before rapidly building a healthy advantage over the Saturday’s loops.

With a conservative drive over Sunday’s final four stages, Tanak claimed victory by 32.7s ahead of Ostberg, while the Estonian driver also claimed victory on the Power Stage for Toyota Gazoo Racing to take maximum points from the event.

The Toyota driver remains third in the WRC standings’ but closes to 45 points off leader Thierry Neuville.

Jari-Matti Latvala gave the home fans some joy by taking third place for Toyota, just missing out to Ostberg by 2.8s at the finish, with Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon promoted to fourth place after last year’s Rally Finland winner Esapekka Lappi crashed out on SS20.

Defending World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier moved up to fifth having been allowed to pass M-Sport Ford teammates Teemu Suninen and Elfyn

Evans in the latter stages of the event. With Suninen in sixth and Evans seventh, Citroen’s Craig Breen claimed a distant eighth place.

World Rally Championship leader Neuville has seen his points advantage suffer some damage finishing a lowly ninth place, while picking up a bonus two points in the Power Stage, but still leads the standings by 21 points.

Andreas Mikkelsen rounded out the points places in 10^th for Hyundai after recovering from a nightmare start at Rally Finland which saw him plummet down the order.

1. Ott Tanak EST Toyota Yaris Gazoo Racing 2hr 35m 18.1s

2. Mads Ostberg NOR Citroen C3 WRC +32.7s

3. Jari-Matti Latvala FIN Toyota Yaris Gazoo Racing +35.5s

4. Hayden Paddon NZL Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +1m 35.6s

5. Sebastien Ogier FRA M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC 17 +2m 15.0s

6. Teemu Suninen FIN M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC 17 +2m 29.5s

7. Elfyn Evans GBR M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC 17 +3m 08.4s

8. Craig Breen IRE Citroen C3 Abu Dhabi WRC +3m 51.8s

9. Thierry Neuville BEL Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +3m 51.8s

10. Andreas Mikkelsen NOR Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC +8m 37.4s

11. Eerik Pietarinen FIN Skoda Fabia R5 +10m 00.3s

Source: Story and image: Crash