Tänak did not quite reach the very top pace over the weekend, even though he did record one fastest time. A podium place was within reach, however, and in the end it was missed by only 3.4 seconds. The gap to second place was just 4.4 seconds.
Tänak suffered two punctures during the weekend, which cost him tens of seconds. On the final stage, right at the end, the front shock absorber on Tänak’s car also failed..
The Hyundai star was understandably disappointed, as valuable points were lost. The Estonian, however, received a couple of points as a ‘gift’ when Hyundai decided that Adrien Fourmaux would retire into the finish of the rally.
“Obviously we had no performance. It was nowhere close. We had tricky weekends inside the car and also with a couple of puncture,” Tänak said.
“For sure in the end it’s hard to miss out like a second place with few seconds, but I guess the biggest loser still was Kalle (Rovanperä) who lost minutes. It’s been tough.”
In the World Championship fight, Tänak is still in contention. He trails Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, who eventually finished second in Paraguay, by 18 points.
“Whatever is the condition, still with some kind of tweaks and setup changes, you should be able to feel roughly there in the car, but we were really struggling to make it work,” Tänak summed up.
“I think nothing much changed, so still it´s quite close. Few points here and there.”
The World Rally Championship continues next week with Rally Chile. After that, the series will head to Central Europe, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
