Tanak turns mechanic in Argentina

Ott Tanak put his skills as a mechanic to the ultimate test when he stopped to change a damaged steering arm on stage three of Philips Rally Argentina.

Tanak used to work as a mechanic for his mentor Markko Martin’s rally team in their native Estonia and he needed to utilise that experience when he hit trouble on the 51.88-kilometre Speedagro Ascochinga/Agua de Oro stage.

“We got a puncture at the beginning of the stage when we hit the bank with the rear tyre and it came off the rim,” said the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team driver. “We continued but we lost quite a bit of time. Then on the last one we hit some stones and one touched the steering arm. We managed to drive for 20 kilometres but in one place it cracked and broke so we had to change the steering arm.”

Tanak, who lost some 18 minutes making the change, insisted the broken component wasn’t because he had taken any unnecessary risks in the Fiesta RS WRC he shares with co-driver Kuldar Sikk. “I wasn’t pushing for sure, I wasn’t trying to make it on the limit,” he said.

After three stages, Tanak is a distant 34th overall on his first appearance on the Villa Carlos Paz-based event.