Ott Tänak drove Sardinia to victory in the World Rally Championship ahead of Sebastien Ogier and Daniel Sordo. World Championship leader Thierry Neuville collected vital World Championship points on Sunday.
2.6. 14:24•Updated 2.6. 14:54
Ott Tänak drove at the end of a wild final special stage to win the World Rally Championship in Sardinia. Clearly led the rally Sebastien Ogier suffered a flat tire as the last rally1 car in the closing stages and lost what seemed to be a sure win by two tenths.
Daniel Sordo completed the top three by finishing third.
The battle for the top of the World Series got even more complicated in Sardinia. World Series leader Thierry Neuville and team mate Tänak had a fierce fight for the Super Sunday and Power Stage wins as well. In the end, Neuville won both the Super Sunday and the Power Stage.
This is how he collected the vital 12 MM points despite his suspension on Saturday.
Tänak was second in Super Sunday and second in the Power Stage. This is how he collected 25 points from the rally and caught Neuville by 13 points in the points situation. Now the difference between the two is 18 points. Elfyn Evans is tied with Tänak.
No surprises on opening day
Four special tests were run on a short Friday. Ogier and Tänak were tough as expected from their starting positions, and Ogier led the rally after the opening day by 4.5 seconds to the Estonian.
Neuville plowed the way for the others and suffered from his starting position, but had a strong day. At the end of the day, Neuville was only 36.6 seconds behind Ogier. Most of the gap came in the long opening stretch, where he lost by as much as 28.1 seconds.
Evans was quiet throughout the rally, and already after Friday he was almost a minute behind the lead. However, he experienced the biggest setback among the drivers at the top of the World Series Adrien Fourmaux, whose Ford had a technical fault. The French driver, who had a good start to the season, had to stop.
Saturday offered drama
Neuville started Saturday strongly from a better starting position than Friday and rose to third overall in the opening stages of the day. Ogier and Tänak traded the top spot throughout the morning in their fight for seconds.
The top three were clearly separated in the morning, until on the eighth special stage of the rally, Neuville made a driving mistake and drove out in the right-hand bend. The World Series leader had to stop. He took the outing completely on his own.
– Difficult, challenging section and I lost my concentration for a moment in the previous corner. I realized that there was a slow corner next, but it was already too late, Neuville said in an interview with WRC Live.
At the beginning of the afternoon run Takamoto Katsuta had to stop when his Toyota developed a transmission problem. The car froze at the beginning of the special test.
In the afternoon special tests, Tänak could not match Ogier’s pace. At the end of Saturday, the French champion jumped to a lead of a good 17 seconds.
On Sunday, Ogier was on his way to a certain victory, while Tänak and Neuville were fighting for Sunday’s biggest points. In the end, the gap Ogier had before the Power Stage was not enough when the tire went flat at the end of the final special stage and Tänak took the overall victory.
Second career win for Sami Pajar
The WRC2 class was a Finnish celebration in Sardinia. Sami Pajari and a map reader Enni Mälkönen gassed flawlessly throughout the rally and the duo was also fast when they needed to be. The 22-year-old Pajari took the second victory of his career in the WRC2 class.
– It was really nice to drive. I was hoping for a good result. I knew I had the speed, I just had to put together a good performance, Pajari was in the mood at the finish line.
Last year, Pajari won the WRC2 class at the Jyväskylä World Rally Championship, but Oliver Solberg was the fastest of the rally2 cars. However, he did not compete for class points. Now Pajari was also the fastest rally2 car for the first time.
Story updated at 15:30: For Sami Pajar, the victory was the second of his career, not the first in the WRC2 class.