Ott Tänak’s second World Rally victory in a difficult season – a terrible disappointment for Teemu Suninen, Kalle Rovanperä shone on Chile’s Power Stage

The World Rally Championship in Chile ended with Ott Tänak’s party. Teemu Suninen’s brilliant rally ended in an interruption, but Kalle Rovanperä definitely drove to the finish line in fourth place.

Ford’s Estonian driver Ott Tänak drove to victory in the World Rally Championship in Chile. Tänak celebrated his second victory of the season in the World Series in South America. The man’s previous complete hit came in February in Sweden.

– Finally a good result. Big thanks to the garage and mechanics. This is a great place to ride, there is a lot of support here, Tänak chatted at the finish line.

Has overtaken Hyundai Teemu Suninen experienced a severe disappointment on the final day. Suninen was stuck in second place for a long time, but drove out on the penultimate special stage. Suninen drove his third World Cup rally of the season in Chile in a Hyundai rally1 car.

After Suninen was interrupted by his teammate Thierry Neuville rose to second place.

Toyota, who leads the World Series by far Kalle Rovanperä drove fourth. The world championship was already in Chile with a break for Rovanpera, but the reigning world champion has not yet secured his second consecutive championship.

At the end of a challenging weekend, Rovanperä showed his best again in the final special test. On Sunday, Rovaperä, who turned 23 years old, drove a wild bottom time on the Power Stage and thus grabbed five more World Cup points to his pot for the weekend.

This was the sixth time of the season that Rovanperä was the fastest in the rally’s concluding special test.

The second one in the series Elfyn Evans was third in Chile. The difference between the two is now 31 points, with two races left in the World Series. The championship is again interrupted for Rovanpera at the end of October in the Central European competition.

After his interruption, Suninen apologized for the situation in the message service X.

– I am so sorry for the team and everyone, this is of course a big disappointment, the Hyundai driver communicated.

At high speed, Suninen’s car hit a stone or stump on the right side of the road. The car ran into a deep ditch. The exit took place at the seven kilometer mark. The hit damaged the suspension of the left front tire and Suninen’s convincingly progressed rally ended on the side of the road.

Toyota secured Chile’s World Series brand championship over the weekend. The contribution of Evans and Rovanperä was completed Takamoto Katsuta in fifth place. Toyota’s gap with Hyundai increased to 106 points in the World Championship points.

Tänak decided his victory with his tire choices

Tänak got away on Saturday when he made successful tire choices. The Estonian chose a hard tire compound for the sections driven on Saturday morning. At the same time, all the Toyota drivers got into big trouble with their soft tires.

Rovanperä was spared from actual tire damage when he was content to circle slowly. Instead, Evans and Katsuta suffered double tire failures in Saturday morning’s final special stage.

Lappi drove out violently in the opening half

Hyundai’s second Finnish driver Esapekka Lapin the sky ended immediately with the first special test. Lapland came out violently in the final stages of the opening stretch.

– I braked too late and there were no seams to avoid the run-out, Lappi said and denied that his run-out was caused by the wrong notes.

On the opening day of the World Rally Championship in Chile, there was another wild exit. French Pierre-Louis Loubet slipped out on the third special exam. Loubet’s Ford was completely wrecked in the situation.