For the Estonian Hyundai driver Tänak, the victory was in the 15th World Rally Championship. Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä, who took the lead in the World Rally Championship, was Fifth, and the team was left without a podium place for the first time in almost three years.
5.6. 14:15 • Updated June 5th. 17:21
Hyundain Ott Tänak drove to victory in the World Rally Championship of Sardinia. The victory was the first of the season for a 34-year-old Estonian and the 15th in his career. He took first place five years ago on the same Italian island.
The win was also the first for Hyundai in the new hybrid era.
The 2019 world champion beat M-Sport, who drove his Ford second Craig Breenin minutes and three seconds. Hyundai, an experienced Spaniard, celebrated his victory in Sardinia in 2019 and 2020 Dani Sordo was third.
Today, too, had misfortune on several occasions last season when he had to be suspended from the top spot. This time, luck was on Friday when the drive shaft of an Estonian car had broken, but the last two special stages were canceled.
– We had good luck, and it helps. We have had a challenging start to a new era, and everything has happened quite late without progress. Now we are developing a car between rallies. If you want to fight for the World Cup, everything has to be a perfect success, Tänak said.
Toyota was left out of the podium for a long time
Toyota has won the previous three races in Sweden, Croatia and Portugal Kalle Rovanperä was Fifth, and he will continue in the World Championships in a superior lead. The lead stretched to 55 points in Sardinia when Thierry Neuville got just five extra points for his Power Stage victory.
The Finn, who ran brilliantly on Power Stage all season, took four extra points again after driving Neuville second.
– The only purpose this week was that we would not lose much and even be able to grow the World Cup lead. The race taught plowing on the first day, but little else. It was known that this is a bad rally, and I don’t like it, Rovanperä said after the race.
After a small mistake on Friday, fifth place felt like maximum performance.
– There we went a little wide and the wing left. We would be wasting time compared to the fact that the starting point could have been better on Saturday and maybe one more place could have been picked up.
Hyundai got two cars on the podium, which Toyota was completely missing this time. The incident was rare since last time Jari-Matti Latvalan the team he led had been completely out of the top three in Turkey almost three years ago. There were 25 competitions in between.
In the manufacturers’ scoreboard, Hyundai caught Toyota with 20 points, and the difference is now 39 points in favor of the team that will be based in Jyväskylä.
– This is a rally. There were a few driving errors for the drivers. Kalle (Rovanperä) did his best he could, but it wasn’t enough for the podium now, sports director Kaj Lindström said.
– We do not lament that he did not win and we were not on the podium. The points are what are considered in November instead of counting profits. In teams, we have a 39-point lead, although of course we would like to increase it in every race. Let’s summarize what we can improve and move on to Kenya.
In the WRC2 class, Ford Jari Huttunen was third, grabbing Sweden’s second podium place of the season to continue. Skoda’s Russian driver drove to the class victory Nikolai Grjazin.
He drove his first World Rally Championship in a Rally2 car Sami Pajari was Fifth and Eerik Pietarinen sixth.
The World Series will continue during Midsummer week at the Safari Rally in Kenya.
Final results, EK 21/21:
1. Ott Tänak, Hyundai 3.10.59.1
2. Craig Breen, M-Sport Ford +1.03.2
3. Dani Sordo, Hyundai +1.33.0
4. Pierre-Louis Loubet, M-Sport Ford +2.09.4
5. Kalle Rovanperä, Toyota +3.02.8
6. Takamoto Katsuta, Toyota +4.02.6
7. Gus Greensmith, M-Sport Ford +5.23.6
8. Nikolai Grjazin, Skoda +7.37.7 (WRC2)
9. Jan Solans, Citroen +8.05.7 (WRC2)
10. Jari Huttunen, Ford +8.10.8 (WRC2)