Hyundai’s Ott Tanak has won the Central European Rally in dramatic circumstances to ensure the World Rally Championship title fight will be decided at the Japan season finale next month.
The 2019 world champions, Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja, were effectively handed the victory after rival Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier crashed out on the penultimate stage having lost his overnight rally lead following a mistake earlier on Sunday morning.
Tanak ultimately secured his second win of the season by nine seconds from Toyota’s Elfyn Evans.
Championship leader Thierry Neuville missed an opportunity to seal a maiden world title after failing to outscore Tanak by two points after finishing third, 39.8s adrift.
The unique asphalt rally that encompasses stages in the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria began with Ogier assuming the lead after the opening stage near the Czech capital Prague. He then extended that advantage to 0.9s over championship leader Neuville heading into Friday’s six stages.
Making the most of starting first on the dry Czech roads that became progressively dirtier, Neuville hauled himself into the rally lead by stage five before going on to extend his lead over Ogier to 6.4s come the end of Friday. Tanak was a further 1.4s back, while Evans remained in the hunt, 15.1s in arrears.
The crews were greeted by damp stages as the rally moved to Germany and Austria on Saturday and fog descended. It created particularly greasy and challenging conditions that caught out several drivers, including leader Neuville.
The Belgian’s lead had been reduced to 0.5s after Tanak produced a stunning time to win stage nine that prompted a text message from Hyundai team boss Cyril Abiteboul to warn the Estonian of the risks he was taking amid concerns over the manufacturers’ title fight with Toyota.
Tanak’s pace briefly moved him ahead of Ogier into second, although the positions switched after the following test where Tanak was too cautious. It meant Neuville’s lead grew to two seconds over Ogier before drama struck on stage 11 (Schardinger Innviertel 1, 17.35km).
Neuville was caught out twice suffering a 360-degree spin when his rear wheels edged onto the grass. After recovering from that spin, an optimistic pacenote sent him off the road at a left-hander and onto the grass run-off.
While trying to navigate his way back onto the road, he became briefly stuck in a ditch costing him more than half a minute and he dropped to fourth.
After assuming the lead, Ogier claimed two of the three afternoon stages held in dry conditions to take a 5.2s advantage over Tanak with Evans 14s adrift.
However, the final day started in dramatic fashion as Ogier suffered a lock-up and went straight on at a junction in stage 16, handing Tanak a 1.9s lead.
Ogier managed to close the gap to 1.5s before dramatically crashing out after running wide into trees 600 metres into the penultimate test.
It proved to be terminal for his victory hopes and dented Toyota’s manufacturers’ title bid having surrendered 18 points provisionally picked up for ending Saturday in the rally lead. Those points went to Tanak with Evans picking up 15 and Neuville 13 points respectively.
Tanak clinched the win but, although he missed out on scoring any Power Stage points, he did reduce Neuville’s championship lead to 25 points, while Hyundai’s advantage over Toyota in the manufacturers’ title fight is 15 points.
Takamoto Katsuta finished an impressive fourth [+1m21s] in what was a strong return to the WRC after being benched for Chile. The Japanese topped the Super Sunday standings by 3.8s from Evans and won the Power Stage to claim a maximum 12 Sunday points.
Gregoire Munster equalled his career best WRC finish in fifth [+3m41.9s] after a trouble-free run through the 18 stages in his Ford Puma.
In contrast, his M-Sport team-mate Adrien Fourmaux struggled for pace across Friday and a front differential issue led to errors on Saturday the second of which put him out of the day’s action. The Frenchman rejoined the rally on Sunday with much better pace to pick up six points.
Toyota’s Sami Pajari had impressed on his first asphalt Rally1 start running in sixth position despite losing hybrid power on Friday. However, the Finn ran wide at a medium-left corner in stage 16 on Sunday that resulted in his GR Yaris rolling into retirement.
Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen also endured a difficult rally that had begun brightly after ending Thursday’s two stages in third spot. It soon turned sour when the Norwegian drifted wide in stage five and crashed into a fence that put him out of sixth position.
Mikkelsen rejoined the rally on Saturday but his Super Sunday hopes were dented by a puncture and hybrid failure.
In WRC2, Nikolay Gryazin claimed the victory while Yohan Rossel’s title hopes were ended as the Frenchman had to win to keep the championship alive.
