Last week, Tänak secured his first win of the WRC season with a stunning performance at the Acropolis Rally in Greece. Immediately after the rally, he headed to Finland for a Monday test session on Hyundai’s private test roads. On Thursday, he carried out a test with the Rally1 car in Estonia.
Read more: Ott Tänak back on the gravel – interesting detail spotted during Finland test
This weekend, Tänak is competing in the Lõuna-Eesti Rally, a national event in southern Estonia, to gather valuable test kilometres in the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 ahead of the fast WRC gravel rounds in Estonia and Finland.
“We will do a small local rally, 90 km, just to get back into the rhythm,” Tänak explained.
“Hopefully we will get a good preparation.”
The Hyundai Rally1 car has received small updates to its chassis in an effort to boost competitiveness on high-speed gravel stages. Tänak was cautious about predicting their effect when speaking after the Acropolis Rally.
“We never tried it, so we never know. So one thing is theory, the other thing is how it’s actually happening. So that’s something we need to see,” he said.
Tänak also entered the same Estonian national rally exactly one year ago for test purposes — but that outing ended in disaster, as he crashed out heavily on the second stage.
Watch the dramatic crash: Wild conspiracy theory about Ott Tänak’s crash – Hyundai comments
The Lõuna-Eesti Rally begins on Friday evening with four special stages. On Saturday, six more stages will be run.
Rally Estonia is scheduled for 17–20 July.
