Dealer
Is it Tänak’s title for the taking?
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Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja won Rally Finland for a second consecutive time yesterday, scoring a full house 30 points after setting the fastest time on the closing Power Stage.
The TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team crew beat Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Citroën C3 WRC) by 25.6 seconds – but more importantly they have opened up a 22 point lead in the FIA World Rally Championship.
With five rounds still remaining, the title fight is between the Estonian pair and Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Citroën C3 WRC) in second and third-placed Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC).
However, Tänak/Järveoja have won three of the last four events and won both the next two rounds, in Germany and Turkey, last year.
It’s beginning to look like only mechanical problems, and the Toyota Yaris WRC has suffered its fair share of those in the past, can stop Tänak/Järveoja becoming World Champions this year, despite 150 points still up for grabs.
This is what Tänak had to say after his latest WRC victory:
Ott, it has been pretty perfect for you out there. Last year you took the win in Finland, you kick off the second half of the season with another win in Finland so two wins for you here. You continue to extend the lead in the drivers’ championship. It’s been a pretty perfect weekend for you, yes? “Yes and with thirty points it’s a perfect weekend. I must say this year it came a lot harder than last year. First of all Friday was a big, big job. During the recce the conditions didn’t look to favour us much but I was really driving on the edge all day on Friday. Then I must say maybe I was out of energy and I was very frustrated that I couldn’t be in the top three. Still I was in touch of the three guys in the front. Since Saturday morning we had a massive fight with my team-mates. Stage by stage the pace was increasing and there was quite a lot of pressure. I must say to get the lead I had to push really on the limit. When unfortunately Jari [Matti Latvala] and Kris [Meeke] hit trouble I managed to get away. Maybe thanks to this big push we managed to grow a bit of our gap to Esapekka [Lappi]. Since lunchtime we had some breathing space and I must say since Saturday lunchtime Esapekka was doing a really good job. He was going on a high pace but luckily we had a package enough to match his speed so. I enjoyed it as well but it was quite intense all the weekend.”
We can certainly see that. As you mentioned it was tenths of seconds and it was only Saturday afternoon were we saw it start to move into double figures for you. Did you feel it was Saturday afternoon that you felt you could maybe ease back a little? “I believe it was actually the Kakaristo stage, the first time when Jari had the puncture and Kris had the problem so after that we had some gap. Since Friday morning it was less than seconds, I think the gap was never bigger than one second so it was always very, very tight. If you suddenly have fourteen seconds then it’s like day and night, it’s a massive difference. Of course this changed our approach immediately. Still, if you have been pushing for a long time one and a half day already then you still are in a high-speed rhythm. Even if you back off a bit still the rhythm stays. Yes we were definitely going safer from there.”
You extend the lead in the drivers’ championship to a 22 point advantage over Sébastien Ogier. What is your feeling with regard to the drivers championship knowing that you are going into another two more events where you had massive success last year? “Of course we are looking forward. We have seen this weekend that our opponents have upgraded their pace. I would say especially Hyundai was very strong this weekend. Normally they would be struggling here but the pace they did was impressive so we need to keep pushing as well. At the moment I believe we still have a bit of an upper hand so we should have the pace to match but you know we still have five races to go. For sure it won’t be easy to beat these guys. Thierry [Neuville] and Séb [Ogier], I know them well enough to know that they will push to the limit. The closer it gets to them the more they start to push so we need to keep working. We know what was the feeling after Sardinia but I believe this moment here and now gives some extra motivation for the team. I hope everybody will push really hard and so do I. We really try to have this job done.”
Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja wear Stilo WRC DES Zero 8860 helmets.
