Tänak was particularly impressive on the second stage of the loop, where he set a blistering fastest time. This allowed him to close in on Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä on the leaderboard.
Rovanperä, currently fourth in the standings, now holds just a one-second advantage over the Estonian. After the first stage on Saturday morning, the gap between the two drivers was 17.1 seconds in Rovanperä’s favour.
So, does Tänak have bad intentions in mind? Is he planning to take down Rovanperä this afternoon when the same stages are run again?
“I wouldn’t call it a bad thing,” Tänak said with a smile.
“But for sure we try to improve the rhythm. There are still many sections where we don’t feel too comfortable in the car.”
Tänak’s impressive pace was backed by a smart tyre choice. He and his teammate Adrien Fourmaux were the only drivers to carry three supersoft compounds for the loop.
“We had no idea where the tyres are working, so we took each three (supersofts and softs). So we had both options, and we also tried both of them to get some kind of idea. But obviously, the know-how is still very limited,” Tänak explained, referring to the fact that this is the first event in the WRC with new tyre supplier Hankook.
While Tänak and Rovanperä battle for fourth place, Fourmaux finds himself in contention at the top of the leaderboard. Competing in Hyundai’s Rally1 car at WRC level for the first time, Fourmaux moved up to second place on Saturday morning, overtaking Toyota’s Elfyn Evans.
Even the rally lead isn’t out of reach for Fourmaux, as he trails leader Sebastien Ogier by just 17.2 seconds.
“When you are a competitor, you always look at the victory. But for now, I just want to continue the same way. And for us, it’s more important to get some points for the championship than chasing Seb, who is not there for the whole championship,” Fourmaux emphasised.
