The entire Hyundai team was no match for Toyota’s dominant performance. Tänak finished sixth, behind all four Toyota drivers and his younger teammate Adrien Fourmaux.
Hyundai debuted their updated Rally1 car in the Canaries, but the performance was clearly lacking. Tänak wasn’t sure whether the trouble started already during pre-event testing or whether the issue runs deeper.
“The positive thing is that big lessons must be taken from here. Clearly, we were not well prepared, but Toyota, at the same time, was very well prepared. This is clearly a unique event, and I guess at the moment it’s just about this rally,” Tänak reasoned.
“But for sure, they’ve done a very good job, and we were just not on the level. It’s difficult to say if the problems started from there, but obviously during testing, it was clear that the car was not behaving like you would expect.”
The WRC season resumes in just over two weeks in Portugal. That rally kicks off a string of seven consecutive gravel events. Hyundai’s updated car hasn’t been tested in gravel competition yet – the team used the older spec in Kenya in March.
“I would say normally on gravel it should feel more natural. But with this car, we haven’t driven on gravel yet, so actually we don’t know yet what’s coming.”
Kalle Rovanperä was in a class of his own in the Canaries. Tänak tipped his hat to the Finnish star but admitted that, especially from Hyundai’s side, there was simply no competition.
“I’m not sure we’re much of a threat at the moment. But definitely, Toyota was very, very strong, and Kalle basically made the most of it. A strong performance from all of them,” Tänak concluded.
