Three of them are still chasing their maiden World Rally Championship win: Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, M-Sport Ford’s Martins Sesks and Toyota driver Sami Pajari. Representing the experienced group is Ott Tänak, who is contesting his final WRC event for now. The Estonian has one world title and 22 rally victories to his name.
Currently running fourth, Tänak set two fastest times on Friday morning to haul himself into the battle for the win. The Hyundai driver is just 9.2 seconds behind rally leader Fourmaux.
“In the faster parts today I feel better in the car and the rhythm is there. Slower parts are still not great,” Tänak reported on arrival at midday service.
“Especially the middle one was actually quite okay, condition like hard base. First one probably will get rutted and the last one we’ve seen it’s quite a lottery with the stones. So, it’s probably the trickiest one today,” he added.
According to Tänak, success on the desert stages is more about managing the situation than driving flat out. He also aimed a subtle jab at the current frontrunners.
“It’s very difficult to balance between getting a puncture and going faster. It’s not like full push but you need to have a good rhythm. The youngsters are going fast here, because they don’t really care or they don’t know what the risk is.”
Fourmaux, however, stressed that he is not attacking with everything he has. The Frenchman’s lead shrank during the morning as Sesks, Pajari and Tänak charged from behind.
“Sometimes when I start to push a bit more, there are rocks in the lines and then I try to avoid them. But if I’m too fast, I cannot really avoid them. To be fair, I’m really surprised that they did not get more punctures this afternoon, considering the pace they were carrying,” said the rally leader.
“I still keep my approach since yesterday and we are still leading. For sure we are losing time, but let’s see.”
Ford’s Sesks climbed to just 2.9 seconds behind Fourmaux in the morning. The Latvian also insisted he was leaving some margin in his driving.
“We almost got a puncture when we damaged two wheels. We were lucky, to be honest. And again, that’s the thing of trying to understand how to manage,” Sesks noted.
The same three stages will be driven again on Friday afternoon.
