Tänak appeared to be pulling away from Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier on the gravel stages and on course for victory. However, a power steering issue on Saturday’s final forest stage dropped the Estonian out of the lead fight and into third place.
On the final day, Tänak launched a fierce attack and climbed ahead of Toyota’s Kalle Rovanperä to claim second place. He was the fastest driver on Super Sunday and also topped the times on the Power Stage. Altogether, he scored 27 points from the rally – just one fewer than Ogier.
Hyundai is still without a win this season, but team boss Abiteboul saw mostly positives in the weekend’s showing.
“This weekend has been a return to the form we expect of ourselves. We have been incredibly competitive throughout the event, with Ott expertly spearheading the charge.”
“He has been impeccable, leading for 15 stages and taking 12 wins; he was the man to beat out there. Ott deserved the win after barely putting a foot wrong all weekend,” Abiteboul praised.
Toyota have now won all five rounds of the season so far. In the previous WRC round in the Canary Islands, Hyundai had no chance against Toyota, but the situation on gravel was much more favourable.
“We regret that Ott’s reliability issue has handed the victory to Toyota, but everyone in the team should be proud of their efforts this weekend. It was a tough event, with long days, but we were a force to be reckoned with in Portugal. We have incredible momentum heading into Rally Italia Sardegna, and we’re going for the win,” Abiteboul underlined.
Rally Sardinia takes place in just over two weeks’ time.
