How Tanak triumphed amid a series of Belgium WRC blunders

At times it felt like nobody wanted to win Ypres Rally Belgium, such was the attrition on the World Rally Championship’s latest asphalt instalment and the rate at which the leaders fell by the wayside. That was until Hyundai’s Ott Tanak inherited the lead following an unceremonious exit for home hero, team-mate and odds-on favourite Thierry Neuville. Few would have predicted Tanak to star in Neuville’s back yard, but the Estonian appears to have unearthed the form that helped guide him to the 2019 world title to deliver a second surprise win on the bounce.

Ypres has developed a reputation of providing one of the toughest asphalt tests in rallying thanks to its narrow ribbons of road, lined by perilous deep ditches that cut across the fields of the Flanders region – once home to battles of a very different kind. This grim moment in history was respected by the WRC drivers, who lay wreaths to pay tribute to the fallen at Ypres’s famous Menin Gate World War I memorial before the rally began.

The weather dominated the event build-up, with teams expecting rain to dominate Friday, turning an already challenging rally into arguably the most difficult wet Tarmac challenge in the world. M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux, who lives just an hour from Ypres, offered some sobering words: “I think the key to winning the rally is to think that you don't want to win the rally. If you want to win, you will crash.” These words would come back to haunt the Frenchman.

Shakedown was held in sunny conditions and it went to expectations as Neuville topped the times from Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera, who entered the rally with the slim prospect of clinching the championship, should he be the winner and Neuville and Tanak hit trouble. But that prospect wasn’t in the 21-year-old’s thoughts.

The rain failed to materialise on a Friday morning that proved Rovanpera is human after all. The runaway championship leader had been unstoppable this year, racking up five wins and a 94-point lead to boot, but his run came to an end in spectacular fashion.

The Finn won the opening stage, but the next test provided the rarest of collectors’ items. At the start, unusually raised voices could be heard from the GR Yaris as Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen became agitated by what was labelled a “big timing mess” that delayed the start of the stage due to a communication issue between Rally HQ and the stage commander.

Once under way, a ragged Rovanpera run followed, until it came to an abrupt halt when he misjudged a left-hander, blaming the error on an optimistic pace note. The result was a series of violent rolls after running wide into a ditch, and a destroyed car. Driver and co-driver clambered out, but it was day over. The pair would return on Saturday after a lengthy repair job, where only the chassis, fuel tank and engine remained untouched.

The remnants of Kalle Rovanpera's crashed Toyota which ended his victory hopes early

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

“For sure it was disturbing in the beginning but I think at halfway into the stage it shouldn't affect us anymore,” said Rovanpera of the timing delay. “I don't know what they [the organisers] were doing, but for sure it was not good.”

Rovanpera’s shock retirement handed the lead to Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, with Tanak in hot pursuit. But just as surprising as Rovanpera’s roll was when Neuville, lacking confidence on the slippery roads, made a costly error on the opening stage when he overshot a junction, leaving him to play catch-up after dropping 10 seconds.

“I am fighting with the car at the moment and compared to last year it's not enjoyable,” said 2021 Ypres winner Neuville.

Despite the handling challenges of the Hyundai i20 N, Neuville’s knowledge of the roads prevailed and he steadily clawed back the lost time, winning five of the day's eight stages to end Friday leading by 2.5s from Tanak, who was also struggling with his Hyundai, and a puncture in the morning.

"I am not really sure if Ott has problems. I think if Ott has problems then I have only three cylinders" Thierry Neuville

“I thought I had something broken in the rear, it was really searching the road, but then I realised it was just the car. It's like this,” said Tanak.

Evans also lost time to a puncture, but it was a rare co-driver timing error that did the most damage when Evans and Scott Martin were slapped with a 10s penalty for checking into stage eight a minute late, which left them 13.7s in arrears.

“Let’s say there was a small co-driver equipment malfunction and it’s an unfortunate error, but one in four years is not so bad,” offered Evans.

The rain that the teams and drivers had been fearing did arrive, but not in the quantity expected. Patchy showers caught out the later runners during the morning, with M-Sport’s trio of Craig Breen, Adrien Fourmaux and Gus Greensmith, Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi and Hyundai’s Oliver Solberg facing the worst of the conditions.

Evans picked up a penalty on Friday which would prove costly as the rally reached its climax

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Lappi’s expectations ahead of the event were to finish with the roof and his windscreen intact on his GR Yaris, following his bizarre recovery to third from a roll in Finland. The Finn was lucky to escape a run-in with a fence post to end Friday in fourth place.

Several drivers gambled on wet-weather tyres for the afternoon stages, but these stayed dry… It was a double blow for Breen, whose rally preparations were hampered when a fire on his Ford Puma wiped out the majority of his pre-event test. The Irishman was caught out by rain in the morning and then struggled with wets in the dry, leaving him almost a minute adrift in fifth, ahead of Greensmith, Solberg and Fourmaux. The last-named had run as high as fourth before facing the worst of the rain.

The only other Rally1 driver missing from the top 10 was Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, who lost several minutes to a gearbox issue that forced the Japanese to pull over, before finishing the morning loop stuck in third gear.

While the service park was still stunned by Rovanpera’s surprise exit, the series leader promptly quashed any suggestions that the accident had dented his confidence. Back aboard his freshly rebuilt GR Yaris, he won Saturday’s first stage. But the day would be dominated by two significant crashes for his rivals, outlining how the Ypres roads can bite.

Stage 10 proved to be one that M-Sport and Breen will want to forget in a hurry. Judging by the first two splits, the Irishman, a former Ypres winner, appeared set to launch his charge up the leaderboard, but a mistake at a left-hander catapulted his Puma into barrel-rolls after running wide into a ditch. Breen and co-driver Paul Nagle were OK after crawling out of their upturned vehicle while spectators rushed to put out a small grass fire. Organisers red-flagged the stage. A third crash in as many rallies for Breen made for grim reading.

The accident had briefly elevated team-mate Greensmith into fifth before moments later he ran off the road and into a field, damaging the Puma’s rear, which required a repair costing him several minutes. The Brit managed to get going and even stopped to assist the stricken Breen, who had gone off the road at the same point where team-mate Fourmaux flirted with a ditch and was luckily saved by a hay bale on the corner exit.

At the front Neuville began to stretch his legs, now feeling much more comfortable behind the wheel. He was helped by Tanak suffering from a transmission issue that left him with an inconsistent four-wheel-drive system, stating that "you can drive it forever, but not like a rally car".

Breen treads carefully between the deep ditches that line the rally route, but would be caught out and retire in spectacular fashion

Photo by: M-Sport

Neuville felt his team-mate was milking the issue, replying: "I am not really sure if Ott has problems. I think if Ott has problems then I have only three cylinders."

Tanak’s glitch was fixed during the midpoint service and it was the 2019 champion who ended the day on top at the expense of his team-mate after a major twist in the event. Neuville was holding a comfortable 17.2s lead when a seemingly regulation tight left that had become dusty from the earlier runners caught him out, and he slid into a deep ditch.

Spectators rushed to his aid to pull the car out, but the damage to the front was too severe. There was a collective sigh and shock from the hordes of Neuville fans who had turned out to cheer on their local hero.

“It felt like a big surprise for me and I couldn’t do anything,” said the dejected Walloon, who would return for Sunday’s action. “I should have maybe spun the car, but you always try to carry on and not lose any time.”

Neuville’s exit set up a potential grandstand finish, with 8.2s separating Tanak and Evans, and Lappi now holding the final podium spot in front of Solberg, who had driven smartly avoiding trouble. Solberg’s drive was noteworthy, following as it did his early Finland exit, which left him in tears, prompting a 40km quad-bike drive at his home to reset his mind.

Evans started Sunday on a charge, winning the day’s first two stages to nibble a chunk out of Tanak’s advantage and serving a reminder that he was ready to pounce on any mistake. But it was Fourmaux who perhaps served the biggest reminder of the perils of Ypres.

He’d been demoted to a comfortable fifth by a penalty for being late to stage after getting pulled over by police on a road section on Saturday evening, and reaching the finish in fifth would have been a silver lining for M-Sport. But it wasn’t to be. Fourmaux threw away the result on the penultimate stage by almost flipping his Puma after miscalculating a left-hander. The crash summed up M-Sport’s disastrous weekend.

Fans scramble to Neuville's aid but it proves to be a costly crash

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Up front, Tanak cruised through the final stages to claim his third win of the season by 5.0s from Evans, who racked up his fourth second-place finish of the season. Lappi completed his own objective of finishing with a roof and windscreen in third.

“Our pre-event test was not really great so we didn't have a great confidence before the rally,” explained Tanak, “but during the rally we were able to pull it together. A lot of things were happening around us with other people and we kept it together. It was not coming by pure performance you know, it was quite a job.”

While all the plaudits surrounded Tanak, Rovanpera showed that he’s still the driver to beat by claiming the five bonus points on the powerstage to stem the reduction of his championship lead

There was double joy at Hyundai as Solberg achieved his career-best result in fourth to complete an impressive turnaround from his Finland nightmare, while Katsuta recovered to fifth in his Toyota to become the only Rally1 driver to finish every rally this season inside the points.

In the WRC2 class, Stephane Lefebvre took the honours in his Citroen from the Skoda of Andreas Mikkelsen, while ex-Formula 1 driver Jos Verstappen finished 60th on his WRC debut. At least he was placed ahead of Rovanpera and Breen, after an off in stage 13 when leading the Masters Cup class.

While all the plaudits surrounded Tanak, Rovanpera showed that he’s still the driver to beat by claiming the five bonus points on the powerstage to stem the reduction of his championship lead to 72 points. It seems that the Tanak of old is back, albeit too late to worry champion-elect Rovanpera.

Despite crashing out, Rovanpera still holds a comfortable WRC points lead with four rounds to go

Photo by: Toyota Racing