The 2019 world champion won six of the day’s eight stages to move into a 46s lead over M-Sport’s Craig Breen, before the final stage of the day ended in bizarre fashion.
Officials threw the red flag to suspend Stage 17 to allow the recovery of Adrien Fourmaux’s stricken M-Sport Ford Puma after the Frenchman ran off the road and crashed out of fifth position. The crew emerged from the incident unscathed.
Third-placed Dani Sordo was first to come across the incident. The Hyundai driver then squeezed by the stricken Puma that had partially blocked the road and completed the stage at a reduced speed and will receive a notional time.
Organisers elected to restart the stage but it appeared a marshal erroneously showed a red flag, resulting in Breen and Tanak slowing to a crawl.
Fourth-placed Pierre-Louis Loubet, who was ahead of Breen and Tanak on the road, completed the stage at normal speed to add to the confusion. It is unclear if the M-Sport driver was shown the red flag.
It is expected national times will be awarded to Breen and Tanak, but organisers are yet to confirm the overall classification for the day. Championship leader Kalle Rovanpera and Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta will however inherit fifth and sixth positions following Fourmaux’s crash.
A brief statement from an FIA spokesperson read: “After the stage restarted following Fourmaux's accident crews were shown a red flag and the FIA is investigation the incident."
The afternoon had begun with crews facing incredibly hot conditions in the afternoon with the ambient temperatures hitting more than 35 degrees on top of the already increased cockpit temperatures.
The heat failed to distract Tanak as he swept to his fourth consecutive stage win on Stage 14 after setting a searing pace in his i20 N, despite battling an engine issue.
Tanak emerged 6.2s faster than an improving Kalle Rovanpera to extend his lead over Breen to 37.2s as the latter was forced to drive around a problem with his Puma.
Loubet stepped up his assault on third overall by taking 2.3s out of rival Sordo.
Behind, a soft front left tyre cost Fourmaux 34s dropping as he began to fall into the clutches of Rovanpera in the battle for fifth overall.
Tanak was once again in command on Stage 15 as he notched up his sixth stage win of the rally to increase his lead to 45.0s over Breen as the Irishman dropped 7.8s.
Breen had been battling issue but gave nothing away when quizzed at the stage end.
“The giggling pin fell out of the laughing shaft but I managed to get it back in, so we are okay,” he joked when asked about the problem.
Sordo survived a scare 300 metres from the stage end when his i20 N briefly hooked into a ditch on the slippery gravel. However, the Spaniard somehow wrestled the car back to clock the second fastest stage time to move within 12s of Breen.
Katsuta, like Breen, was also managing a radiator issue with his GR Yaris and lost 30s on the test.
The second pass through the afternoon stages saw Tanak remain in unbeaten as he topped the times on Stage 16.
Tanak admitted he wasn’t pushing but was still able to take a second out of Breen to deny the Ford driver a second stage win of the event.
Sordo rode his luck again after his i20 N took a big gulp of water at the water splash and briefly stalled. On this occasion he only lost 1.6s to Loubet in the fight for third.
Evans however suffered fare more serious issue as the left rear suspension collapsed on his GR Yaris which put him tint retirement for the second time in as many days. The Welshman tried to keep going before pulling off onto an access road.
Toyota team-mate Katsuta continued to lose time as he carefully nursed his wounded GR Yaris to the finish.
Rally Sardinia is set to host four more stages on Sunday.
Results:
| Cla | Driver/Codriver | Car | Total Time | Gap | Interval | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
 Ott Tanak Martin Jarveoja
| Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | 2:32'17.300 | |||
| 2 |
 Craig Breen Paul Nagle
| Ford Puma Rally1 | 2:33'03.300 | 46.000 | 46.000 | |
| 3 |
 Dani Sordo Candido Carrera | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | 2:33'24.100 | 1'06.800 | 20.800 | |
| 4 |
 Pierre-Louis Loubet Vincent Landais
| Ford Puma Rally1 | 2:33'37.600 | 1'20.300 | 13.500 | |
| 5 |
Adrien Fourmaux Alexandre Coria | Ford Puma Rally1 | 2:34'31.200 | 2'13.900 | 53.600 | |
| 6 |
 Kalle Rovanperä Jonne Halttunen
| Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2:34'40.500 | 2'23.200 | 9.300 | |
| 7 |
 Takamoto Katsuta Aaron Johnston | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2:35'58.700 | 3'41.400 | 1'18.200 | |
| 8 |
 Gus Greensmith  Jonas Andersson
| Ford Puma Rally1 | 2:37'09.100 | 4'51.800 | 1'10.400 | |
| 9 |
 Nikolay Gryazin Konstantin Aleksandrov | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:38'11.800 | 5'54.500 | 1'02.700 | |
| 10 |
Jan Solans Rodrigo Sanjuan | Citroën C3 Rally2 | 2:38'56.300 | 6'39.000 | 44.500 | |
| 11 |
Jari Huttunen Mikko Lukka | Ford Fiesta Rally2 | 2:39'03.700 | 6'46.400 | 7.400 | |
| 12 |
Chris Ingram Craig Drew
| Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:39'04.200 | 6'46.900 | 0.500 | |
| 13 |
 Marco Bulacia  Marcelo Der Ohannesian
| Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:39'13.500 | 6'56.200 | 9.300 | |
| 14 |
Sami Pajari Enni Mälkönen | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:39'35.200 | 7'17.900 | 21.700 | |
| 15 |
Eerik Pietarinen Antti Linnaketo
| Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 2:40'11.500 | 7'54.200 | 36.300 | |
| 16 |
Emilio Fernández Axel Coronado | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:41'18.600 | 9'01.300 | 1'07.100 | |
| 17 |
Mikołaj Marczyk  Szymon Gospodarczyk
| Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:41'29.700 | 9'12.400 | 11.100 | |
| 18 |
Bruno Bulacia Marc Marti
| Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:43'06.200 | 10'48.900 | 1'36.500 | |
| 19 |
 Martin Prokop Michal Ernst | Ford Fiesta Rally2 | 2:43'52.800 | 11'35.500 | 46.600 | |
| 20 |
Freddy Loix Pieter Tsjoen | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:44'58.200 | 12'40.900 | 1'05.400 | |
| 21 |
Rakan Al-Rashed Hugo Magalhaes | Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 2:45'54.900 | 13'37.600 | 56.700 | |
| 22 |
Yohan Rossel Valentin Sarreaud
| Citroën C3 Rally2 | 2:48'43.800 | 16'26.500 | 2'48.900 | |
| 23 |
 Jourdan Serderidis Frédéric Miclotte | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:49'04.600 | 16'47.300 | 20.800 | |
| 24 |
Jean-Michel Raoux Laurent Magat
| Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 | 2:49'50.800 | 17'33.500 | 46.200 | |
| 25 |
Eduard Pons Alberto Chamorro | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:50'43.100 | 18'25.800 | 52.300 | |
| 26 |
Diego Jr. Rogelio Penate
| Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:51'41.400 | 19'24.100 | 58.300 | |
| 27 |
Pablo Biolghini Stefano Pudda | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:51'49.300 | 19'32.000 | 7.900 | |
| 28 |
Silvano Patera Danilo Fappani | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:55'34.800 | 23'17.500 | 3'45.500 | |
| 29 |
Jan Černý Tomáš Střeska | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:56'14.100 | 23'56.800 | 39.300 | |
| 30 |
Gabriele Campagnoli Nicola Arena | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:57'45.300 | 25'28.000 | 1'31.200 | |
| 31 |
Zoltán László Tamás Kürti | Ford Fiesta Rally3 | 2:58'00.400 | 25'43.100 | 15.100 | |
| 32 |
Daniel Chwist Kamil Heller | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 2:59'10.700 | 26'53.400 | 1'10.300 | |
| 33 |
Luke Anear Andrew Sarandis | Ford Fiesta Rally2 | 3:02'43.100 | 30'25.800 | 3'32.400 | |
| 34 |
Giuseppe Messori Pier Paolo | Škoda Fabia R5 | 3:05'57.400 | 33'40.100 | 3'14.300 | |
| 35 |
Francesco Tali Cristina Caldart | Ford Fiesta Rally2 | 3:10'22.300 | 38'05.000 | 4'24.900 | |
| 36 |
Timothy Van Kurt Heyndrickx | Renault Clio Rally4 | 3:11'11.300 | 38'54.000 | 49.000 | |
| 37 |
Gianluca Mara Veronica Cottu | Peugeot 208 R2 | 3:13'14.300 | 40'57.000 | 2'03.000 | |
| 38 |
Miguel Díaz-Aboitiz Jordi Hereu | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 3:16'24.200 | 44'06.900 | 3'09.900 | |
| 39 |
Gian Paolo Angelo Tendas | Peugeot 208 R2 | 3:24'24.900 | 52'07.600 | 8'00.700 | |
| 40 |
Carlo Covi Andrea Budoia | Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo | 3:27'07.000 | 54'49.700 | 2'42.100 | |
| 41 |
Giacomo Spanu Davide Spanu | Ford Fiesta Rally4 | 3:59'17.600 | 1:27'00.300 | 32'10.600 | |
| View full results | ||||||
