The Estonian star did benefit from the best starting position, but his pace was also significantly stronger than on Friday. The first two stages of the loop, in particular, suited Tänak perfectly.
“We were obviously better positioned this morning, but also had a bit improved feeling in the car. I would say the balance is better, so it was a bit easier to control the situation, but still very, very demanding,” Tänak explained.
The same three stages will be run again in the afternoon, and conditions are certain to be even tougher the second time through. Tänak said he returned to a basic setup on Saturday, which seems to be working quite well.
“Firstly, we hope to keep the tyres in one piece. That is the main target. I guess the biggest challenge is that we just need to keep the rhythm and keep the flow. I think this morning the rhythm was good,” Tänak reflected.
Tänak’s main challenger once again is Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier, who trails the Estonian by 33.2 seconds. In the previous rounds in Portugal and Sardinia, Ogier managed to beat Tänak.
“I knew we could not have any answer to Ott’s pace in this loop. The road got better car after car this morning. You can see what kind of gap we created already to the guys just in front of us. Also, they had one more soft tyre, and that was clearly a better compromise for this morning loop. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford to do that with my tyre package,” Ogier summed up.
“I think we still did a clean loop.”
Ogier also gave a special thanks to WRC stage-end reporter Molly Pettit, who spotted the Frenchman’s fallen mirror on the ground.
“Big thanks to Molly. I need to give her a hug, because at the end of the second stage this morning, when opening my door at the stop control, my mirror was hanging and fell on the ground. I didn’t see that, but she just handed it to me,” Ogier laughed.
“Then I could fix it during the road section. You know, it’s a little bit of downforce because it’s a little wing for us. And I won the last stage with 0.1 seconds”
