M-Sport duo continue to impress down under

M-Sport Ford World Rally Team’s Evgeny Novikov and Ott Tänak continued their strong showing over Day 2 of Brother Rally New Zealand today. Never out of the top-ten and challenging the four works drivers on individual stage times, the youngsters lie 4th and 5th respectively; strengthening their status as the World Rally Championship’s next generation of rally victors.

Heading to the northland region for 143.01 kilometres of competitive stages in the Whangarei and Kaipara districts, M-Sport’s youngsters rose to the challenge once more. With a second remote service – this time based in Whangarei – demanding a mature and composed drive, both Novikov and Tänak showed some strong pace whilst maintaining focus and keeping their Ford Fiesta RS WRCs out of trouble.

Despite losing their podium position to a resurgent Petter Solberg, Novikov and co-driver Denis Giraudet kept their own over the morning loop. Setting the third fastest time through the 23.22 kilometers of Brother Mititai 1 (SS10), the Russian was just 0.7 seconds adrift of pacesetter Jari-Matti Latvala and his first stage win in the Ford Fiesta RS WRC.

Continuing his strong drive over the afternoon loop, the 21-year-old showed his pace once again with another third fastest time through Wapu Gorge (SS12) – less than a second adrift of eight-time world champion Sébastien Loeb – and increased his advantage to team mate Tänak to more than 20 seconds going into the final day of competition.

Displaying real maturity, Tänak and co-driver Kuldar Sikk were back to their best. Keeping their Ford Fiesta RS WRC on the road, the duo also displayed some real pace over the morning loop with a fourth fastest time through the opening test (Batley, SS9) – just 2 seconds adrift of Mikko Hirvonen – and a fifth fastest time through SS10 (Brother Mititai 1) – just 0.2 seconds off the pace of rally-leader Loeb.

Tänak’s pace impressed further over the afternoon leg with a second and third fastest time over SS12 and SS13 (Waipu Gorge and Brooks) respectively. Despite suffering a spin on SS14 (Brother Mititai 2) – losing over 10 seconds – the 24-year-old set the eighth fastest time followed by another strong showing through the following stage to bring the gap to team mate Novikov down to just 21.3 seconds.

Looking to maintain their positions over tomorrow’s final day, M-Sport’s young guns head north of Auckland for 61.33 kilometers of stages not used since the 1990s and two passes of a short asphalt test at the city’s War Memorial Museum.

Evgeny Novikov (4th) said:

“We have had a good day, but and I haven’t been pushing 100 per cent. I took it a little steadier over the morning loop – which is where Petter [Solberg] passed me – but I am confident that I could have pushed a lot harder in some of those stages.

“We set some good times in the first half of the afternoon too, but I backed right off for the last two [stages] as they are quite tricky. Now tomorrow is all about being sensible and keeping our fourth place.”

Ott Tänak (5th) said:

“We have had a good day and set some good times. For us, this event is all about making it to the end so it is good to see that our times are still there without being totally flat out and on the limit.

“On SS14 we had a spin going into a fast right-hander which cost us about 10 seconds, but I am happy with our pace and feeling comfortable in the car so tomorrow we can look to push a little bit more.”