Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

WRC Rally Italy: Ott Tanak wins attritional event in Sardinia

Ott Tanak took his first ever World Rally Championship victory with first place on Rally Italy, after surviving an attritional event in Sardinia in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC

The event was thrown on its head in a twist on Saturday afternoon, when long-time leader Hayden Paddon crashed his Hyundai into a bank on SS13 and retired on the following road section, gifting Tanak the lead.

The Estonian pushed hard to build up an unassailable gap to Toyota's Jari-Matti Latvala, who lost time with a stall on SS17 on Sunday morning, effectively ending his charge.

Latvala was desperate to take powerstage honours but ran wide in a tight left-hander, and was inconsolable at the finish.

Thierry Neuville rounded out the podium, although he would have likely been the one to inherit the lead from Paddon had he not had brake issues on Saturday.

The Belgian driver lost the brakes completely, just as he was closing on Paddon for the lead.

Arguably the star of the weekend was Esapekka Lappi, who won the powerstage to take his sixth stage victory of the weekend, on only his second event in a 2017 WRC car with Toyota.

He had gearbox issues on Friday morning, losing second gear, which cost him time, before winning his first stage of the weekend on the final stage of the loop despite the problems.

Sebastien Ogier looked downcast all weekend, as he swept the road and ended Friday 41 seconds off the lead.

When he wasn't sweeping the road, he suffered from understeer and struggled to find the sweetspot with his M-Sport Fiesta.

Juho Hanninen lost fifth to Ogier on the final stage with steering issues, but still finished sixth despite crashing on Friday's Tergu SS9, when he had been only 7.9s off the lead on the previous stage.

Mads Ostberg had a problem-filled weekend capped off by his rear-right wheel pointing in the wrong direction on the powerstage, but still got his Fiesta home to finish seventh.

Andreas Mikkelsen headed the Citroen charge on his debut with the team in eighth place.

A puncture was his only worry, as he worked to adapt to a car driven from the rear, contrary to his usual understeer-favouring style.

His team-mate Kris Meeke crashed out as he challenged for the lead on Friday, while Craig Breen looked to be heading for the top 10 before a landing after a jump dislodged the gearbox mounting and forced him out and into Rally2 on Saturday.

Elfyn Evans was another driver to return under Rally2 on Saturday after hitting a tree on Friday and a compression launched the DMACK Fiesta off the road.

Evans and Breen both finished outside of the top 20.

Dani Sordo also suffered with turbo issues, and just to show what could have been, he set multiple stage wins on his way to finish 12th.

Jan Kopecky took WRC2 honours in his Skoda Fabia R5, finishing 9th overall.

LEADING FINISHERS AFTER SS19:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 3h25m15.1s
2 Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 12.3s
3 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 1m07.7s
4 Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 2m12.9s
5 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 3m25.3s
6 Juho Hanninen, K.Lindstrom Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 3m38.5s
7 Mads Ostberg, O.Floene M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 6m31.8s
8 Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT Citroen 8m07.8s
9 Eric Camilli, B.Veillas M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 11m15.8s
10 Jan Kopecky, P.Dresler Skoda Motorsport II Skoda 11m21.4s

LEADING POWERSTAGE TIMES:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 5m10.5s
2 Dani Sordo, M.Marti Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 0.4s
3 Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia M-Sport World Rally Team Ford 1.3s
4 Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai 1.9s
5 Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC Toyota 2.3s

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

Pos Driver Points
1 Sebastien Ogier 141
2 Thierry Neuville 123
3 Ott Tanak 108
4 Jari-Matti Latvala 107
5 Dani Sordo 70
6 Elfyn Evans 53
7 Craig Breen 43
8 Hayden Paddon 33
9 Juho Hanninen 29
10 Kris Meeke 27
11 Esapekka Lappi 20
12 Andreas Mikkelsen 16
13 Mads Ostberg 12
14 Stephane Lefebvre 10
15 Teemu Suninen 5
16 Jan Kopecky 5
17 Pontus Tidemand 4
18 Eric Camilli 2
19 Stephane Sarrazin 2
20 Yohan Rossel 1
21 Bryan Bouffier 1

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Rally Italy Sardinia: M-Sport's Ott Tanak on brink of first WRC win
Next article Citroen drops Kris Meeke for Andreas Mikkelsen for Rally Poland

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe