Rally Italy Sardinia: M-Sport's Ott Tanak on brink of first WRC win
Ott Tanak extended his Rally Italy lead on the first two stages of Sunday morning to 25.5 seconds over Toyota's Jari-Matti Latvala
M-Sport Ford driver Tanak - who has never won a WRC round - lost time to Latvala on the opening test, but pulled it all back on Sassari-Argentiera after Latvala had a stall that he felt cost him around five seconds.
It wasn't plain sailing for Tanak, who had a Fiesta full of dust as the car developed a hole. He is hopeful he can fix It before the next stage.
Having crashed out of the lead on Saturday, breaking a driveshaft in the process, Hayden Paddon rewarded his mechanics for getting the car ready for leg three with a stage win on the morning's opener. His team-mate Dani Sordo won SS17.
The third Hyundai of Thierry Neuville remains third, just under 40s behind Latvala but 1m24.7s ahead of Esapekka Lappi.
Lappi was quicker than his Toyota team-mate Juho Hanninen on both stages to ensure he stays ahead in their battle for fourth.
Championship leader Sebastien Ogier is saving car and tyres for a push for powerstage points after an event mostly spent cleaning the roads.
He lies sixth, ahead of fellow Fiesta driver Mads Ostberg and Citroen new boy Andreas Mikkelsen, the last 2017 WRC car in the top 10.
LEADING POSITIONS AFTER SS17:
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ott Tanak, M.Jarveoja | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 3h11m00.7s |
| 2 | Jari-Matti Latvala, M.Anttila | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC | Toyota | 25.5s |
| 3 | Thierry Neuville, N.Gilsoul | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 1m05.2s |
| 4 | Esapekka Lappi, J.Ferm | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC | Toyota | 2m29.9s |
| 5 | Juho Hanninen, K.Lindstrom | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC | Toyota | 3m14.2s |
| 6 | Sebastien Ogier, J.Ingrassia | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 3m39.0s |
| 7 | Mads Ostberg, O.Floene | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 4m17.5s |
| 8 | Andreas Mikkelsen, A.Jager | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 8m04.2s |
| 9 | Eric Camilli, B.Veillas | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 10m24.6s |
| 10 | Jan Kopecky, P.Dresler | Skoda Motorsport II | Skoda | 10m29.1s |
| 11 | Ole-Christian Veiby, S.R.Skjaermoen | Printsport | Skoda | 12m31.1s |
| 12 | Hayden Paddon, S.Marshall | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 15m07.6s |
| 13 | Dani Sordo, M.Marti | Hyundai Motorsport | Hyundai | 16m37.7s |
| 14 | Yazeed Al-Rajhi, M.Orr | Yazeed Racing | Ford | 17m06.6s |
| 15 | Takamoto Katsuta, M.Salminen | Tommi Makinen Racing | Ford | 17m20.0s |
| 16 | Yohan Rossel, B.Fulcrand | Citroen | 20m40.6s | |
| 17 | Jean-Michel Raoux, L.Magat | Citroen | 31m30.5s | |
| 18 | Simone Romagna, M.Bosi | Ford | 31m37.8s | |
| 19 | Nil Solans, M.A.Ibanez | Ford | 32m55.2s | |
| 20 | Nicolas Ciamin, T.de la Haye | Ford | 33m39.5s | |
| 21 | Pierre-Louis Loubet, V.Landais | Ford | 34m09.5s | |
| 22 | Giuseppe Dettori, C.Pisano | Skoda | 35m03.3s | |
| 23 | Julius Tannert, J.Heigl | ADAC Sachsen | Ford | 36m08.5s |
| 24 | Terry Folb, C.Guieu | Ford | 37m30.6s | |
| 25 | Dennis Radstrom, J.Johansson | Ford | 39m39.3s | |
| 26 | Craig Breen, S.Martin | Citroen Total Abu Dhabi WRT | Citroen | 44m09.0s |
| 27 | Elfyn Evans, D.Barritt | M-Sport World Rally Team | Ford | 44m25.6s |
| 28 | Lukasz Pieniazek, P.Mazur | TRT Peugeot WRT | Peugeot | 47m05.0s |
| 29 | Robert Duggan, T.Woodburn | Ford | 49m19.6s | |
| 30 | Martin Prokop, J.Tomanek | Onebet Jipocar WRT | Ford | 53m37.3s |
| 31 | Giuseppe Pozzo, C.Mele | Subaru | 1h00m20.7s | |
| 32 | Dillon van Way, D.Roberts | Ford | 1h02m34.2s | |
| 33 | Giovanni Bitti, P.Cottu | Skoda | 1h04m04.6s | |
| 34 | Kees Burger, M.Lukka | Skoda | 1h11m59.5s | |
| 35 | Enrico Brazzoli, E.Ghietti | Peugeot | 1h21m54.3s | |
| 36 | Raffaele Donadio, G.Barbaro | Citroen | 1h31m39.3s | |
| 37 | Giovanni Martinez, G.Pirisinu | Peugeot | 1h39m54.5s | |
| 38 | Carlo Covi, P.E.Ometto | Peugeot | 1h41m49.3s | |
| 39 | Sebastian Careaga, R.Sanjuan | Ford | 1h44m12.0s | |
| 40 | Andrea Coti Zelati, L.Aliberto | FIAT | 1h52m52.1s | |
| 41 | Pietro Someda, G.Campesan | Peugeot | 1h56m10.1s | |
| 42 | Samuele Pirotto, E.Revello | FIAT | 2h23m02.5s | |
| 43 | Alessandro Leoni, L.Arca | Citroen | 2h39m42.4s |
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