ERC Estonia: WRC guest Ott Tanak takes home win for Markko Martin
World Rally Championship regular Ott Tanak clinched a dominant home win on a guest appearance in the European Rally Championship's Estonian round
Tanak was a class apart all weekend, shrugging off a few minor errors and technical glitches to maintain a commanding advantage from start to finish.
He eased off over the final afternoon and still won by 47 seconds.
But there was no one-two for Estonian WRC hero Markko Martin's M-M squad, as Tanak's team-mate Timmu Korge lost out in a late battle with Alexey Lukyanuk.
The Russian had chased Korge throughout and mounted a final spurt to thrust his Production class Mitsubishi Lancer ahead of Korge's Ford Fiesta R5 for second.
Lukyanuk's result was the first overall podium of the season for a Production car, and was achieved despite an ample R5 and Super 2000 entry.
Fellow Mitsubishi driver Rainer Aus caused another Production upset as he fended off ERC championship leader Esapekka Lappi's factory S2000 Skoda for fourth place.
Karl Kruuda overcame Lappi's team-mate Sepp Wiegand for sixth on the final day in one of Peugeot's new 208 T16 R5s.
WRC3 champion and WRC2 frontrunner Sebastien Chardonnet made his ERC debut in Citroen's new DS3 R5 but was a conservative ninth as he used the event to test for Rally Finland.
Leading finishers after SS15: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Ott Tanak M-M Ford 1h49m36.4s 2. Alexey Lukyanuk EAMV-RPM Mitsubishi +47.1s 3. Timmu Korge M-M Ford +55.4s 4. Rainer Aus Carglass Mitsubishi +2m11.7s 5. Esapekka Lappi Skoda +2m17.2s 6. Karl Kruuda ME3 Peugeot +2m56.8s 7. Sepp Wiegand Skoda +3m24.1s 8. Roland Murakas Prorehv Mitsubishi +3m41.8s 9. Sebastien Chardonnet MY Citroen +4m27.7s 10. Kristian Sohlberg Sohlberg Ford +5m59.0s
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