The team secured its first win of the season at the Acropolis Rally in Greece at the end of June. Ott Tänak claimed victory in the iconic event, with teammate Adrien Fourmaux backing him up in third place.
Tänak has been one of the championship’s most consistent drivers in recent rounds. From the last three WRC events, the Estonian has scored one win and two second-place finishes.
He’s also among the biggest favourites for victory at his ultra-fast home rally, which kicks off on Thursday.
“Following a fantastic result in Greece, we now turn our attention to continuing that positive trajectory in Estonia and beyond,” Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul said.
“It was important to get our first win of the year at Acropolis Rally as we look to close the gap and reinvigorate our championship challenge in the second half of the season.”
See the current WRC standings here.
Hyundai has only won Rally Estonia once. Tänak took the historic victory five years ago at the inaugural WRC round in Estonia.
The team is now targeting strong results both in Estonia and at Rally Finland, held a couple of weeks later – even though both events traditionally suit Hyundai’s main rival, Toyota, better.
Abiteboul is now demanding proper results from his squad to keep Hyundai in serious contention for both titles.
“We now move on to a different gravel profile for the next two rounds, where we will be targeting clean weekends, strong points and a continuation of our podium streak,” Abiteboul outlined.
“We have to remember that this is not a surface we have historically performed well on, but with so many long days and nights put in by the whole team, it’s time for everyone’s hard work on and off the stages to come to fruition.”
Rally Estonia gets underway on Thursday, with the shakedown in the morning followed by the opening super special stage in the evening.
