SS17-18-19: Tänak claims hat-trick

Ott Tänak won all three of Sunday morning’s opening speed tests at Dayinsure Wales Rally GB but Sébastien Ogier remained firmly in control at the head of the leaderboard.

Estonian Tänak, driving a Ford Fiesta RS, beat his French rival by 0.6sec in the Clocaenog opener. He regained a further 3.5sec at Brenig before completing the loop with fastest in Alwen to claw back another 3.8sc from the Volkswagen Polo R pilot.

The gap between the duo was 25.9sec with just three stages remaining in this penultimate round of the FIA World Rally Championship but Tänak was not risking all on the slippery gravel forest tracks.

“It’s crazy. The roads are really slippery in the first two stages, very tricky conditions,” he said. “I have no interest to push at the maximum, I don’t want to make any mistakes. There was a bit more grip in the last one and I had a good feeling and rhythm. I enjoyed that one.”

Ogier continued to push hard, acknowledging that Tänak’s tyres gave him an edge on the greasy roads.

“I’m still pushing, I’m on the limit,” he said. “I said yesterday that we would lose time today and I knew we needed a gap. We still have that gap so that’s OK, but I need to keep driving well.”

Thierry Neuville remained third in his Hyundai i20, despite a small mistake in Clocaenog when he slid wide in a hairpin. His advantage over team-mate Hayden Paddon remained pretty much unchanged at 12.3sec, the Kiwi happier with his car’s balance after making set-up changes overnight.

Kris Meeke stayed fifth in a Citroën DS 3, likening the slippery conditions to ice in places, with Dani Sordo sixth in another i20. Jari-Matti Latvala moved his Polo R into seventh ahead of Mads Østberg’s Ford Fiesta RS.

Yazeed Al Rajhi had major gearbox concerns in his Fiesta RS, while Valeriy Gorban went off the road twice in Clocaenog and also punctured in his Mini John Cooper.