How the WRC title fight ignited in Sweden's winter wonderland

When M-Sport re-signed Ott Tanak for the 2023 World Rally Championship season the objective was clear: return to the top step of the podium after a trying campaign last year. In Sweden last weekend, just the second round of the campaign, Tanak delivered.

The 2019 world champion outlined why he remains the sought-after talent M-Sport was desperate to rehire, proving it is possible to win in the WRC without the fastest car. Tanak’s run to an 18th career victory also underlined that the Estonian’s return to M-Sport, the team that nurtured his talent back in 2011, will add extra spice to the championship battle. Reigning world champion Kalle Rovanpera had anticipated strong opposition this year, but now he knows he’ll have a fight on his hands to defend his crown.

While Tanak ultimately claimed the spoils to end M-Sport’s almost 13-month victory drought, Sweden was far from a dominant win as the WRC served up one of its most intense head-to-head battles in years. To add to the narrative, Tanak’s sparring partner on this occasion was his M-Sport predecessor Craig Breen, who put his dismal 2022 at the Ford squad to bed on his WRC return with Hyundai. The Irishman almost stole the show on the Swedish snow to score a maiden WRC win.

After being resoundingly beaten 16-2 on stage wins by Toyota in Monte Carlo, Hyundai’s new boss Cyril Abiteboul chose Sweden as the location to debut his first structural and procedural changes by bringing a dose of “F1 thinking” to the squad to fulfil his wish for the team to be more engineering-led.

“Formula 1 is impressive with its chain of command and the amount of information that we have to digest in a very little amount of time,” said the former Renault F1 boss. “I think here it is a little bit different but there are some things we can transfer from F1 to this world.”

While Hyundai enjoyed a far stronger showing in Sweden, it was Toyota that drew first blood when the action kicked off on Thursday night. The consensus was that starting first on the road would be a clear disadvantage, but last year’s Sweden winner Rovanpera appeared to rip up that theory by winning the curtain raiser. Tanak was only 1.6 seconds shy, while Esapekka Lappi emerged as the top Hyundai in fourth despite skating into a snowbank, with Neuville fifth and Breen seventh.

Rovanpera battled his snow ploughing hinderance as first on the road

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Thoughts that Rovanpera would now waltz his way into a commanding lead were quickly put to bed on Friday morning as the Finn struggled cleaning the roads of snow. When conditions featured packed ice, he was able to threaten at the top of the times and even snatched two stages wins across the day’s seven tests. But largely the day was about damage limitation as Rovanpera struggled being first to tackle the second pass of the now rutted roads. He jokingly outlined the grave situation after stage five, as he emerged slower than WRC2 runners Oliver Solberg and Emil Lindholm.

"Just before the stage I got a message that traction has left the chat," he smiled. "There was not much I could do – I barely survived the stage, it was really tricky."

His struggles were highlighted by Rovanpera ending the day fifth, some 31.1s adrift of the lead, a gap the 2022 Sweden winner believed was already too big to recover: "The gaps are not so big during the stages and with really fast stages tomorrow I think it will be difficult to do much. Every time we had a chance with the road condition we pushed hard and we were on the top times, I couldn’t do much more."

That lead Rovanpera thought insurmountable was held by Breen, who had produced the drive of the day. He has history on the snow in Sweden, highlighted by a second with Citroen in 2018, although last year Breen found himself stuck in snowbank on stage two. This was one of the moments from a disastrous 2022 season that took him to some dark places. The effects of 2022, resulting a move to a part-time seat at Hyundai, were clear to see when Breen won Friday’s opening stage, which almost brought him to tears.

"Last year I was usually upside-down or stuck in a hedge somewhere, so it's music to my ears to be in the lead" Craig Breen

"I've missed that feeling," he said. "Very, very simple, completely effortless. Second chance – I'm a very lucky boy."

A second stage win on the Brattby test (stage five) at the start of the afternoon brought the smile back to his face and the Breen that had been missing for some months returned.

"I could probably be the mayor of Brattby at this stage," he said after clocking a blistering time some 7.8s quicker than his nearest rival. "The car is absolutely on rails – I've never had anything like this before. More of that please."

It was enough to snatch the lead away from Tanak, who had held sway in the morning despite failing to win a stage, but this consistent pace was to prove the key for later success. Breen’s day wasn’t without a lucky brush with a snowbank on his way to extending the advantage to 10.5s, before ending Friday with a margin got 2.6s over Tanak. His was still the biggest smile in the service park.

Breen led on Friday to bring himself some joy after a nightmare 2022

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

"Last year I was usually upside-down or stuck in a hedge somewhere, so it's music to my ears to be in the lead tonight,” he said. “You have no idea of the darkness that went on last year. Fortunately I ride the crest of the waves when things are good, but I unfortunately ride the down parts too."

While still not overly happy with his Puma, Tanak offered a glimpse into his potential by reeling in Breen, thanks to what would be his only fastest time on stage seven.

"Result-wise, we can definitely be quite happy," said Tanak. "It's much more than we expected coming here. We could be a lot better."

Lappi was another driver to enjoy a favourable road position, heading into Saturday, 11.2s adrift in third ahead of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, who had struggled for confidence in his GR Yaris. Neuville was sixth, having found the going extremely tough on the rutted roads.

Despite suffering from a lack of hybrid, M-Sport’s Pierre-Louis Loubet inherited seventh following Takamoto Katsuta’s wild exit from the rally. The Japanese, competing in his first 2023 outing driving the third factory Toyota, clouted a snowbank while occupying fifth. It sent his GR Yaris into a high-speed roll. The car lost its entire rear wing assembly and suffered damage to the radiator that ultimately led to a retirement from the day’s action. He would retire from the event completely on Sunday due to an engine issue.

If Friday had produced an intense duel between Breen and Tanak then Saturday’s events took it to the next level. The battle continued after Breen was lucky to avoid a time penalty scare overnight when stewards issued the Hyundai driver a reprimand for driving 30 metres in a designated EV-only zone under internal combustion engine power on Thursday.

A fourth stage win for Breen on Saturday morning briefly helped extend the lead to 5.7s before Tanak again nibbled away at the advantage to 3s by midday service.

Again, a second pass took the cars through incredibly rutted stages, with exposed gravel now replacing the snow and ice surface. Tanak picked this moment to attack – and that coincided with a series of misfortune for the leader. Breen somehow managed to escape a trip through a snowbank on stage 12 that no doubt last year, given his luck, would have halted him. The lead reduced to 1.7s. Then came stage 13 and drama overload.

Punctures caused drama for the frontrunners during Saturday's action

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

First, Rovanpera suffered a spin after charging hard to catch Neuville following a morning during which the world champion labelled his GR Yaris “s*** to drive” after a failed set-up tweak. While much happier and faster in the afternoon, he lost control and managed to spin at a fifth-gear left-hander. Somehow he avoid all the snowbanks to slot his GR Yaris into an access road that allowed him to continue with minimal time loss.

Luck wasn’t shining on third-placed Lappi as his front-right tyre delaminated, causing his i20 N to snap and spin deep into a snowbank at the final corner with the stage end in sight. Spectators eventually dug the Finn out, but seven minutes were lost as well as his podium hopes.

Moments later team-mate Breen suffered a similar delamination, this time his front-left, but was able to reach the stage end. The lead dropped to 0.5s but Breen had other problems in the form of a loss of hybrid boost.

Unaware of Breen’s lack of hybrid, Tanak was next to suffer a tyre failure as his front-left punctured on a long straight, resulting in a junction overshoot. It halted a blistering run through stage 14 that had the Estonian predicted to gain 12s. “Ask the Pirelli guys, it’s delaminated on the straight like the Hyundai guys,” said an angry Tanak when asked what had happened. Fortunately for him, Breen’s dramas catapulted him to an 8.6s rally lead heading into Sunday’s final three stages.

"Everybody has done a good job but we were not the fastest car and to be honest Ott has just done an incredible job" Malcolm Wilson

After a swift investigation, Pirelli confirmed that Tanak had suffered a puncture likely to have been caused by a combination of low tyre pressures.

“There were in some cases tyre pressures that were much lower at the finish than we recommend at the start: we have never seen tyre pressures that low until today,” said Pirelli’s rally manager Terenzio Testoni. “It must also be said that in the afternoon the road conditions were completely different to the pure winter conditions in the morning, with a lot of exposed gravel and a rough surface, unsuitable for studded tyres.

“This situation was the cause of the slow puncture suffered by Tanak on SS14, just three kilometres after the start. Speeds, on the other hand, have no relevance: if they had, there would have been problems even this morning. On the contrary, we are witnessing very high and above-average speed peaks.”

While the battle for the lead captivated the large crowds flocking to the stages, it was Neuville and Rovanpera – now elevated into a fight for the final podium spot after Lappi’s spin – that lit up the timing screens. At one point the pair shared third on identical overall times before a fourth stage win of the day lifted Neuville to a 3.8s advantage over Rovanpera.

Team orders at Hyundai didn't quite come off, but the squad still bagged a double podium

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

The prospect of a maiden win for Breen still being alive meant Tanak couldn’t rest on his laurels, but ultimately Sunday’s final three stages turned into a relative cruise compared to the previous three. After pulling away from Breen in the morning, Tanak’s victory was in the bag.

That was the clearly the thinking at Hyundai too as Abiteboul made the first big call of his tenure by deciding to deploy team orders to benefit its lead driver Neuville. Breen was checked in a minute late before the final stage to incur a 10s penalty that dropped him to third, 0.5s behind the Belgian. It created a dramatic and confusing finale after Neuville made an error on the final stage, and with an unaware Breen next on the road he ended up reclaiming second by accident.

“That wasn't the plan, but I had no way of knowing,” said a sheepish Breen when told the news. “We're happy – it's been an incredible weekend and great to be back at the front again.”

While Hyundai's team orders backfired, Lappi did claim the full Power Stage bonus points recover to seventh and Neuville held off Rovanpera for third. Evans was a distant fifth ahead of Loubet, who took sixth despite stopping on the final stage with an engine problem. He reached the finish using EV mode. Eighth overall was claimed by the impressive Oliver Solberg, who stormed to an emotional victory on home soil in WRC2.

But the rally belonged to Tanak. He swept to a 18.7s win to return belief to the M-Sport team, and vindicate his decision to rejoin the Ford squad in the hope they can offer a shot at another world title.

“It is a great start [to the championship] and probably more than we expected,” said Tanak, who now tops the table by three points. “For sure, we can improve a lot this year and it is up to the guys how fast we can do that. Hopefully, when we get things rolling, we can be a bit more competitive.”

“Everybody has done a good job but we were not the fastest car and to be honest Ott has just done an incredible job,” added M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson. “It has been really difficult [last year] but I never lost the belief in the guys and girls and the Ford guys, and that we still had a world-beating car. Thankfully it has been proved again on this rally.”

The WRC title fight has been well and truly ignited.

Tanak's win puts him on top of the early WRC drivers' standings

Photo by: M-Sport