Ott Tänak managed to keep the pack of Toyota pursuers behind him in Rally Finland and celebrated his third victory in the Nordic Grand Prix.
So far, the only one who has managed to get the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 to the top step is Ott Tänak, and this thesis remains valid even after the Finland Rally, where the 2019 world champion claimed his second championship of the year. The Estonian got to the head of the Nordic competition immediately after the first classic section and from that moment on he already controlled the lead, even though the entry into Sunday could still have been a heart attack, but Tänak did not allow drama and by winning the opening section of the last stage he showed the closest pursuer Kalle Rovanperä who wants to Finland to win the most. However, he allowed his Finnish juice at least an imaginary patch in the form of a PowerStage win, but that was all. However, as the driver’s statements in the stop sign already echoed, the competition was certainly not without problems and the Estonian was often on the edge and outside his comfort zone, which is illustrated for example by the words after the first pass of the Päijälä section, where the driver’s car was evaluated with the words that driving it is a nightmare.
Maybe that’s why Ott Tänak stayed for the server after the competition DirtFish to hear that it was the biggest victory in the World Cup, even though it was a primate with serial number 16. “It’s been a tough weekend, it’s been really hard on the head. We’ve been under a lot of pressure. At the start of the race, the Toyota guys gave us a bit of space, so we saw the light at the end of the tunnel and once we got into the lead, we for a while they tried not to lose it. It was a tough fight, we had Elfyn, Esapekka and Kalle behind us. All three tried to get us. But we managed to keep the lead and it wasn’t easy. I can’t say it was the best performance I’ve when he performed behind the wheel, but it’s the best win we’ve ever won. It was also maybe our bravest performance and a bit of nonsense at the same time, but it paid off in the end.” an Estonian competitor returns to the evaluation of the competition.
When the world champion from 2019 returns to the course of the rally, he lets it be known that after Friday he was convinced that he would not enjoy the first place for much longer: “I went into Saturday with the belief that all three Toyotas would overtake us, but somehow that didn’t happen. When the conditions were tougher in the afternoon, we were able to give it back to them again and Kalle didn’t get too close to us. On Sunday morning however, I still wasn’t sure how it would go and the first test was crucial for me. So we went all out and managed to get some time on Kelle and then it was about getting the win.” concludes the Estonian Hyundai pilot.
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