How Tanak and M-Sport nailed Chile tactics to end their WRC barren spell

Ott Tanak's Rally Sweden victory in February would have felt like a long time ago prior to the World Rally Championship's long awaited return to Chile last weekend, as his second stint at M-Sport has largely failed to live up to expectations. But the Estonian was at his very best in South America to score a win that will give both driver and team a boost

“I can’t remember an event like this before.” That was Ott Tanak’s summary of a particularly challenging Rally Chile that ultimately ended a character-building eight-month barren run for the Estonian and M-Sport in the World Rally Championship.

It’s fair to say that Tanak has witnessed pretty much everything the WRC can throw at you over a 14-year career in rallying’s highest level. But Chile’s welcome return to the calendar after a three-year hiatus offered up a vastly different prospect than back in 2019, a rally also claimed by Tanak.

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Author Tom Howard

Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.

After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.

Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.