A new rally star emerges

Three things stood out in Sardinia on last week's Rally d'Italia.

There was Sebastien Loeb's sublime success from the front of the field in his Citroen DS3 WRC. Next up, Volkswagen's announcement that the Polo R WRC is go for 2013. And finally, the Mini debut - and Kris Meeke's stunning drive. The Northern Irishman grabbed the headlines while his team-mate Dani Sordo took the first points for the John Cooper Works WRC.

All of the above were pretty well documented on AUTOSPORT.com last week. Now look a little closer at the result from Olbia. Look beyond Sordo's sixth place and what do you find: Ott Tanak in seventh, but crucially the first man home without the aid of a blower under the bonnet of his Ford. In Sardinia, Tanak dominated the third round of the Super 2000 World Rally Championship.

Tanak doesn't say much. Let's face it, he's had a good teacher in Markko Martin. That's not a criticism of Markko. I've known him for a long time and he has a fine, English-tuned sense of humour and a generosity of character which led him to pay for supper in Monaco and give me a ride in his 911. He's a good bloke. Just not one for wasting words.

Having spent large parts of 2000 trying to tease the door of his Toyota Corolla WRC open, let alone a word from inside, I suggested to Martin that Tanak could only have one mentor.

"Really?" he laughed. "I think Ott talks much more than I did!"

Last week, Tanak's talent did all the talking. In fairness, his speed has never really been in doubt. Check out his Group N-winning pace (for the non-S2000 cars) on Rally Finland for the last two years if you're not convinced. But that massive ability in top gear had been tempered by a penchant for putting the car off the road in rather odd circumstances.

As a Pirelli Star Driver last year, Tanak tested the patience of PSD co-ordinator Phil Short to the limit when he built big leads only to bin his Mitsubishi on the final day in both Turkey and Portugal. He tested Martin's patience when he dropped his Ford Fiesta from second place in Mexico earlier this year. But those moments are becoming less and less frequent. And Sardinia was a real breakthrough.

Tanak has a bright future © sutton-images.com

Tanak is a fast driver who likes fast roads. What he showed in Italy last week was a big step in maturity, it was hard to believe that was his first time competing on the island's gravel roads. Particularly given the astonishingly technical nature of the opening day.

Last year, Tanak was struggling with his pace notes - the cause of his shunt in Turkey was rooted in a mistake made on the recce - but his first SWRC win demonstrated the great strides he has made in this area. The first day in Sardinia was unbelievably twisty. I'd planned to recce all the stages in the area around Oristano, but only managed the long Monte Grighini Nord test before my Fiat Panda and I had to turn and head for home. The road never stopped turning. For crest after crest, there was no clue as to which way the stage would go. And the grip level seemed to change with every bend. This was a true test. This was just the sort of place that would have caught Tanak out 12 months ago.

Not this time. He played himself in on the opener, hit the front and stayed there. Nobody really knew too much about the opening day, (although Skoda's Juho Hanninen had seen some of the roads when this even ran as an Intercontinental Rally Challenge round last year) but there was an expectation that Tanak would be reeled in over the weekend, when the Finn and his Fabia were on more familiar territory.

It didn't happen. Tanak maintained his pace and Hanninen could do nothing.

"I think I should start to look for a short cut," said the Finn, only half-joking as he eyed the timesheets that revealed a gap of almost a minute between him and the MM Motorsport Ford ahead.

Following his IRC title success last season and his first asphalt win on the Rally Islas Canarias earlier this year, Hanninen is being touted as the most complete driver emerging from the new generation. Yet in Sardinia, he had no answer for Tanak's pace.

Markko Martin is a perfect mentor for Tanak © LAT

He told much better jokes, though.

Some of the credit for Tanak's win has to go to M-Sport, which could take as much satisfaction as the Estonian from the result. Just as Hanninen is rated very highly among his peers, so is the car he drives. The Fabia S2000 under him is a full-on factory car, and one which has wanted for nothing in Skoda's pursuit of IRC glory. On the evidence of Sardinia, the boys from Mlada Boleslav had better get their heads together.

Last weekend was the debut for the evolution of the Fiesta S2000. Tanak's car, along with those of Rene Kuipers, Martin Prokop and Nasser Al-Attiyah had a new cylinder head, new air intake, improved dampers, a new front splitter, some slidey windows and undoubtedly a couple more bits I've forgotten.

When the original Fiesta was launched on the wettest of wet Rally of Scotlands in 2009, Matthew Wilson had 270bhp to play with. A new exhaust system late last year offered another 12 and this latest up-spec means 10 more horses. I'll do the maths: Tanak had 292bhp in Italy. And all of it's useable, with this M-Sport-tuned motor reckoned to be among the most driver-friendly on the market.

One thing is certain, Skoda will like being beaten about as much as Hanninen did and we can expect the Czechs to be bouncing back pretty quickly.

Another thing is now certain, Tanak will make his debut in a Fiesta RS WRC at The Rally Show in Britain on Sunday.

"What's it like?" Tanak asked me, about The Rally Show, not the Fiesta RS WRC.

"Like Goodwood."

Tanak won P-WRC in Finland last year © LAT

He smiled broadly. Tanak went to Goodwood last year and, like Martin, fell in love with it immediately. His week was made. He'd won in Sardinia and he's driving a World Rally Car at an event like Goodwood. Could you shut him up about it?

Yes. No problem.

But in the end, who cares how much he talks? His driving does plenty of that for him. And that's why M-Sport has him nailed down on a long-term contract. Tanak's future is very bright indeed.

But his immediate future's in Oxfordshire on Sunday. So get out there and watch the sport's future make his debut in Ford's finest. Just don't expect him to talk about it.