Ott Tanak dominated FIA World Rally Championship’s (WRC) Rally Estonia in a Hyundai 1-2 with Craig Breen as Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier was third.
The 2020 WRC season re-started with a dominant performance from Hyundai’s Tanak (co-driver Martin Jarveoja). He started the proceedings finishing third in Friday’s lone stage, which was headed by M-Sport Ford Fiesta’s Esapekka Lappi (co-driver Janne Ferm).
It was actually a tie between Lappi and Toyota’s Ogier (co-driver Julien Ingrassia) with the duo setting a 1m17.0s time. Shifting focus to the first real day of action in WRC, it was Tanak who spearheaded the proceedings from teammate Breen (co-driver Paul Nagale).
Tanak won SS3, SS4 and SS8 to have a lead of over 11 seconds on Breen, who took wins in SS9 and SS10 to get the better of the Toyota cars. Ogier steadied in third with victories in SS5 and SS7 in his Yaris from teammate Kalle Rovanpera (co-driver Jonne Halltunen).
The Finn won SS2 and SS11 but did not have the pace as Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville (co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul) with the SS6 win ended up 47th after he suffered rear-right damage in a knock during SS7, while he was part of a Hyundai 1-2-3.
It was damage recovery from then on as teammate Tanak only extended his advantage on Sunday, where despite late troubles in SS16, the Estonian won his home WRC event, Rally Estonia, leading a Hyundai 1-2 with Breen in second, about 22.2s behind.
The Toyota drivers took all of the Sunday stages where third-placed Ogier won in SS14 and SS15, while teammate Rovanpera won SS13, SS16 and SS17 – the latter being the Power Stage. But despite that, the Finn lost a place to end up fifth.
He had a one-minute time penalty on Saturday which dropped him behind teammate Elfyn Evans (co-driver Scott Martin). The Welshman brought himself in the contention after winning SS12 as the trio led the M-Sport Ford Fiesta triplets.
Teemu Suninen (Jarmo Lehtinen) headed the pack in sixth with Lappi seventh and Gus Greensmith (co-driver Elliott Edmonson) eighth as they rounded out the Top 8 of the WRC finishers. Hyundai’s Neuville, meanwhile, was 39th after more troubles.
Here’s the full results: https://www.wrc.com/en/wrcplus/live-timing/
Here’s the last change to WRC calendar
