How Tanak turned the tables to deliver Hyundai a timely WRC triumph
The 2019 champion has been a bit-part player recently, but Ott Tanak ended a 15-month drought in fine style with a dominant win in Sardinia. On a weekend when championship leader Kalle Rovanpera struggled with cleaning the road, his Hyundai rival has made his belated arrival into the title race and given cause for those predicting a walkover from the Toyota star to pause
The World Rally Championship has become the Kalle Rovanpera show of late. But in Sardinia, the stars aligned for Ott Tanak and Hyundai to remind the Finn that he could yet have a title fight on his hands.
Tanak has developed a love-hate relationship with Sardinia’s fearsome gravel roads. In 2012, it was the scene of his first WRC podium, and five years later, also representing M-Sport, his first victory. But in recent seasons it has been the source of painful memories.
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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.
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