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Tanak talks winning Rally Sweden

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Tanak talks winning Rally Sweden

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja won Rally Sweden their Toyota Yaris WRC and take the lead of the FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ and Co-drivers’ for the first time in their careers.

Drivers faced difficult conditions throughout rally weekend, as warm temperatures caused the ice and snow to melt. Tänak ended Friday within two seconds of the rally lead and then capitalised on his better road position on Saturday to open up an advantage of nearly a minute over the competition. On Sunday, he took care through the opening two stages and was then fastest on the Power Stage by 3.5 seconds to also claim the five bonus points.

For the TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team, this is their second Rally Sweden win in three years, as it was the scene of its maiden WRC triumph in 2017.

Ott, win seven of your WRC career and your first win here in Sweden! You now the lead the championship. A satisfying weekend for you? “To be honest it started well. For me the best loop Friday morning when we had some extremely good conditions and it was really enjoyable to drive. We built a small gap then, because we knew we would lose on the second loop – this was the toughest part of the rally. But we survived with no incidents and no mistakes and still we did quite an OK loop and we were only a couple of seconds behind Teemu [Suninen]. Since Saturday morning, we tried to do our best and take the win with minimum risk. We had a good flow in the car. It was working from there. Maybe in places it was even a bit boring because we didn’t have to fight. The car was great everything was working, in position like this it was enjoyable to drive.

How much did you risk in the Power Stage? “I would not say I took any risks. I tried to drive well. We did nearly a perfect stage in a good line and the rhythm was good. It worked great. I don’t know how it was in the beginning, but I think we had a good road position. You try to do your best, so I’m happy with the result.”

Were you on the limit? “I don’t think we pushed to the maximum, maybe the most on the limit in the Power Stage. But there we tried to drive well, but we were, more or less, on the limit. Normally you have to fight for the last tenth of seconds, but we were in the best situation. We saw yesterday the conditions were so tricky, I would not like to push on these conditions – maybe this was the fastest way. If you are fighting you want to be on the limit all the time.”

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja wear Stilo WRC DES Zero 8860 helmets.