Ott Tänak ended a frustrating start to the season by claiming his maiden win in WRC 2 at LOTOS 71st Rally Poland today.
A series of crashes left the pre-season title favourite languishing in the standings, but he led from start to finish to beat Drive DMACK team-mate Jari Ketomaa by 1min 38.2sec.
The Estonian dominated the four-day event on sandy roads in Poland and Lithuania, winning 17 of the 22 stages. He and Ketomaa built a big lead over their rivals and with no pressure from his team-mate, Tänak measured his pace for much of the event.
“We had a small fight on Friday with Jari but after that it was fine. We’ve had some unlucky moments this season but finally we’ve done it,” said Tänak, who climbed to fifth in the championship.
Ketomaa dropped time on the third day after hitting a rock and spinning his similar Fiesta R5. However, second means the Finn moves to third in the title race, with his home event coming next.
Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi finished third in a Fiesta RRC, despite a suspected broken propshaft in the last stage. He finished 4min 11.2sec off the lead.
Fourth was Ukraine’s Valeriy Gorban, his Mini John Cooper Works 5min 30.0sec behind. The top six was completed by Portugal’s Bernardo Sousa, who survived a series of niggling problems in his Fiesta RRC, and Peru’s Nicolas Fuchs.
Karl Kruuda’s title hopes suffered a blow when he rolled his Peugeot 208 T16 out of fourth on the second day. Martin Kangur lost a potential third by ripping a wheel from his Fiesta S2000 and Sébastien Chardonnet finished out of the points after a water leak in his Citroen DS3 R5 dropped him from fourth.
Max Rendina won the Production Cup category within WRC 2. The Italian finished 6min 24.9sec ahead of Juan Carlos Alonso, who lost top spot with a broken radiator.