SS13: Tanak continues to charge

Ott Tanak continued a run of impressive stage times with the third-quickest mark on the second Saturday afternoon stage of Brother Rally New Zealand.

M-Sport Ford’s rising Estonian star was beaten only by the two factory Citroens on Brooks, having been second only to Sebastien Loeb on the preceding Waipu Gorge stage. That burst of pace has brought Tanak to within 8.6 seconds of his team-mate Evgeny Novikov’s fourth place, while stretching out a 40s cushion over the pursuing Thierry Neuville’s Qatar Citroen.

At the front, the ultra-close contest between the Citroen drivers continued as Loeb pipped Mikko Hirvonen to the fastest time by 0.6s, bringing his overall lead up to 5.4s.

Petter Solberg is still a minute and a half off the lead in third in the leading works Ford.

Further back, a battle is starting to brew for sixth, with Dani Sordo’s Prodrive MINI edging closer to Neuville. The gap now stands at 20s.