After the first four special stages, Tänak is in second place, 4.5 seconds behind the rally leader, Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier.
“I think we can be happy. We have a good road position for tomorrow. It would have been nice to be one position higher, but we still need to be happy with what we have,” Tänak said.
Tänak encountered problems at the start of the event when the hybrid unit malfunctioned on the second special stage, but fortunately for the Estonian, he didn’t lose too much time.
“The loss of hybrid boost was not that big a deal as the road was quite loose, so there wasn’t much grip. But the second time was very grippy, so that helped a lot. The strong engine, I would say, helped us. So we didn’t lose too much time,” Tänak recounted.
Saturday in Sardinia will be a long day. The day, which includes eight special stages, will demand a lot from both the drivers and the cars. In the evening, the first conditional points will also be awarded by the end of the day.
“I would say immediately, the first four stages are extremely demanding, very slow, like cow tracks—just narrow, twisty, with no straights, no flow at all. So it will be just hard work to get through,” Tänak predicted.
Tyres are under heavy strain in Sardinia, and punctures were already seen on Friday. Tänak drove hard throughout Friday but managed to conserve his tyres well.
“We tried to be smooth on the long runs to not stress the tyres. And, uh, I would say it helped also. For the last stage, we didn’t really need to worry about the tyres.”
