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Rally Italy Sardinia: M-Sport's Ott Tanak on brink of first WRC win

Ott Tanak extended his Rally Italy lead on the first two stages of Sunday morning to 25.5 seconds over Toyota's Jari-Matti Latvala

M-Sport Ford driver Tanak - who has never won a WRC round - lost time to Latvala on the opening test, but pulled it all back on Sassari-Argentiera after Latvala had a stall that he felt cost him around five seconds.

It wasn't plain sailing for Tanak, who had a Fiesta full of dust as the car developed a hole. He is hopeful he can fix It before the next stage.

Having crashed out of the lead on Saturday, breaking a driveshaft in the process, Hayden Paddon rewarded his mechanics for getting the car ready for leg three with a stage win on the morning's opener. His team-mate Dani Sordo won SS17.

The third Hyundai of Thierry Neuville remains third, just under 40s behind Latvala but 1m24.7s ahead of Esapekka Lappi.

Lappi was quicker than his Toyota team-mate Juho Hanninen on both stages to ensure he stays ahead in their battle for fourth.

Championship leader Sebastien Ogier is saving car and tyres for a push for powerstage points after an event mostly spent cleaning the roads.

He lies sixth, ahead of fellow Fiesta driver Mads Ostberg and Citroen new boy Andreas Mikkelsen, the last 2017 WRC car in the top 10.

LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS17:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 3h11m00.7s
2 Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 25.5s
3 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 1m05.2s
4 Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 2m29.9s
5 Juho Hanninen, K.Lindstrom Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 3m14.2s
6 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 3m39.0s
7 Mads Ostberg, O.Floene M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 4m17.5s
8 Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 8m04.2s
9 Eric Camilli, B.Veillas M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 10m24.6s
10 Jan Kopecky, P.Dresler Skoda Motorsport II Skoda 10m29.1s
11 Ole-Christian Veiby, S.R.Skjaermoen Printsport Skoda 12m31.1s
12 Hayden Paddon, S.Marshall Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 15m07.6s
13 Dani Sordo, M.Marti Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 16m37.7s
14 Yazeed Al-Rajhi, M.Orr Yazeed Racing Ford 17m06.6s
15 Takamoto Katsuta, M.Salminen Tommi Makinen Racing Ford 17m20.0s
16 Yohan Rossel, B.Fulcrand Citroen 20m40.6s
17 Jean-Michel Raoux, L.Magat Citroen 31m30.5s
18 Simone Romagna, M.Bosi Ford 31m37.8s
19 Nil Solans, M.A.Ibanez Ford 32m55.2s
20 Nicolas Ciamin, T.de la Haye Ford 33m39.5s
21 Pierre-Louis Loubet, V.Landais Ford 34m09.5s
22 Giuseppe Dettori, C.Pisano Skoda 35m03.3s
23 Julius Tannert, J.Heigl ADAC Sachsen Ford 36m08.5s
24 Terry Folb, C.Guieu Ford 37m30.6s
25 Dennis Radstrom, J.Johansson Ford 39m39.3s
26 Craig Breen, S.Martin Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 44m09.0s
27 Elfyn Evans, D.Barritt M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 44m25.6s
28 Lukasz Pieniazek, P.Mazur TRT Peugeot WRT Peugeot 47m05.0s
29 Robert Duggan, T.Woodburn Ford 49m19.6s
30 Martin Prokop, J.Tomanek Onebet Jipocar WRT Ford 53m37.3s
31 Giuseppe Pozzo, C.Mele Subaru 1h00m20.7s
32 Dillon van Way, D.Roberts Ford 1h02m34.2s
33 Giovanni Bitti, P.Cottu Skoda 1h04m04.6s
34 Kees Burger, M.Lukka Skoda 1h11m59.5s
35 Enrico Brazzoli, E.Ghietti Peugeot 1h21m54.3s
36 Raffaele Donadio, G.Barbaro Citroen 1h31m39.3s
37 Giovanni Martinez, G.Pirisinu Peugeot 1h39m54.5s
38 Carlo Covi, P.E.Ometto Peugeot 1h41m49.3s
39 Sebastian Careaga, R.Sanjuan Ford 1h44m12.0s
40 Andrea Coti Zelati, L.Aliberto FIAT 1h52m52.1s
41 Pietro Someda, G.Campesan Peugeot 1h56m10.1s
42 Samuele Pirotto, E.Revello FIAT 2h23m02.5s
43 Alessandro Leoni, L.Arca Citroen 2h39m42.4s

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