Tänak fights for the win in Poland

M-Sport World Rally Team’s Ott Tänak remains in contention for a potential win at this weekend’s Rally Poland. Despite having to contend with a number of set-backs throughout the day, his speed has been highly impressive and he remains in the fight for the top positions.

The Estonian set an outstanding pace through the opening loop. Notwithstanding an intermittent brake issue, Tänak and co-driver Raigo Mõlder were the ones to watch – claiming three out of a possible four stage wins to secure an early lead.

At home on the fast-paced gravel, Tänak was reminding the world what he and new Ford Fiesta RS WRC are capable of and entered the midday media zone as the rally leader. Unfortunately, he was to find himself on the back-foot for the afternoon pass.

As his brake issues continued, the Estonian’s speed was also tempered by selecting six of Michelin’s soft compound tyres as opposed to the optimum hard tyre. Tänak was not the only one to be caught out by the hotter than usual Polish summer and was amongst a number of crews to experience significant tyre wear and a subsequent loss of traction.

But the strong-willed Estonian refused to give up the fight, ending the day in a competitive fourth place just 16.7 seconds adrift of the lead. Looking strong, Tänak is relishing the opportunity to rekindle his fight for the win.

In the sister M-Sport Fiesta RS WRC, Elfyn Evans and Daniel Barritt were displaying a marked improvement from this time 12 months ago. Enthralled in an intense battle for the top-five, the Welshman had the upper hand over a number of his more experienced rivals. Unfortunately, his fortunes also took a downward turn through the afternoon loop.

Opting for five of Michelin’s soft compound tyres, he suffered the same issues as Tänak. With little traction, he was caught out under braking 30 kilometres into SS7 – overshooting into a field and losing more than 30 seconds to the leading pack.

Despite being relegated outside of the top-ten, the Welshman will be looking to regain his speed and rein in his rivals as the event continues amidst the searing temperatures of the Polish Lake District.

Ott Tänak (4th) said:

“We had quite a few issues today. They weren’t particularly major but they were affecting the confidence and the performance of the car quite a lot. We were struggling in a lot of places but we were also fighting really hard and considering what problems we had I think we have done a pretty good job today.

“We weren’t so smart with the tyre choice this afternoon but we are here and we’re not so far from the lead. We just need to keep pushing in the morning and if we can get the car fixed then I’m confident that we can challenge for the best result. If we can have everything perfect, we should be competitive and I’m really hungry for tomorrow!”

Elfyn Evans (11th) said:

“I think it’s fair to say that we made a fairly major mistake when selecting tyres for this afternoon. Half way through the long one [SS7] we already knew that was the case and the tyres had started to go off.

“Then I got slightly caught out in a braking point and with so little grip had a big overshoot into a field. There was no grip in the last 10 kilometres and we really lost a lot of time. When we saw the condition of the tyres we knew there was nothing we could do. We just had to get back to service with four tyres on the car.

“Having said that I think there were improvements this morning for sure. There’s still some work to be done until I can really say that I’m where I want to be, but we’ll start afresh tomorrow and see what we can do.”

Team Principal, Malcolm Wilson OBE, said:

“Ott [Tänak] has shown great pace today which put him into the lead of the rally this morning with three stage wins to boot. As you can imagine I was absolutely delighted with his performance, but in fairness he has had to deal with a niggling little issue with the brakes throughout the day and that hasn’t helped his confidence. Then of course this afternoon he took six soft tyres which wasn’t the optimum choice and we paid the price for that.

“We weren’t alone [in the tyre choice] and it didn’t cost Ott as much as it cost other people. It cost Elfyn [Evans] a tremendous amount as he only had the five [tyres] and he’s down in 11th place as a result which really doesn’t justify the massive improvement he has made in the space of 12 months.

“But all in all I think it’s been a good day for us. Ott has proven how competitive he and the new car can be. He’s only 16 seconds off the lead with two days still to go. If you look at his pace from this morning then I think it’s going to be a very exciting day tomorrow.”