Ott Tänak wins South Estonia Rally
On Friday and Saturday, the South Estonia Rally — part of the Estonian Rally Championship series — was held on the roads of Võru and Haanjamaa. As expected, Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja took the win, competing in the only Rally1 car in the field.
Tänak won the rally with a time of 45:41.9. The final stage saw Kaspar Kasari (Ford, +4:28.0) and Priit Koik (Škoda, +4:35.7) climb into the top three.
Tänak, who won every stage on the opening day, held a 1:22 lead over Latvian driver Ralfs Sirmacis by Friday evening and was ahead of another Latvian, Emils Blums, by 1:24. Koik was in fourth place, trailing the 2019 world champion by 1:38.6.
On the second day, Tänak continued his dominance, winning every stage once again. On Stage 5, he beat Priit Koik, who was driving a Škoda Fabia Rally2, by 26.9 seconds.
In Stage 6, Kasari followed Tänak (+22.4) and finished 0.9 seconds ahead of Egon Kaur, who was driving a Ford Fiesta Proto.
Stage 7 saw Tänak finish 32 seconds ahead of Kasari and 36.3 seconds ahead of Koik. In Stage 8, the world champion beat Koik by 25.7 seconds, with Koik edging out Kasari by just 0.4 seconds.
In Stage 9, Tänak posted a time of 4:18.3 — eight seconds faster than on the first run. Koik finished 23.5 seconds behind him and Kasari trailed by 24.3 seconds.
Heading into the final stage, the overall standings were tightly contested. After Stage 9, Latvian driver Ralfs Sirmacis held third place, with Kasari trailing by 1.2 seconds and Koik 4.4 seconds behind. Koik had moved up to fourth following Emils Blums' retirement.
In the final stage, Tänak crossed the finish line in 6:35.2. Both Koik and Kasari managed to overtake Sirmacis — Koik finished the stage in 7:14.2 and Kasari in 7:09.7.
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Editor: Elisabeth Siivelt, Marcus Turovski
