Ott Tänak 10th in Rally Finland, drops to fourth place in WRC table
Ott Tänak's disappointing result at the weekend's WRC Rally Finland saw him drop from first to fourth place in the drivers' standings.
Toyota dominated what for them is effectively their home rally — the WRC team is based in Jyväskylä — with double world champion Kalle Rovanperä winning before a home crowd, and then next for places taken by his teammates.
As for Tänak, who went into the weekend at the top of the drivers' table, he came fourth in the initial shakedown run Thursday morning then promisingly won the opening stage proper in Finland Thursday evening. However, things turned tough already on day two, Friday, when his positioning meant having to act as "road sweeper."
In an echo of last year's dramatic crash which ended the Estonian's race, Tänak hit a tree during stage seven. He did not need to drop out this time, but the incident pushed him down to tenth place. Additionally, he was hit with a five-minute time penalty by the FIA for inadvertently hitting a marshal during a tire check, causing the marshal minor injuries.
This dropped the Estonian way down to 28th place, but he managed to hang in there and claw his way up to 11th by the final Power Stage, finishing 10th overall by the end of the weekend.
That final stage saw Hyundai teammate Adrien Fourmaux retire due to a punctured tire, gifting Tänak a point even as the latter had experienced a puncture as well.
This more or less summarized Hyundai's misfortunes: On the Saturday, both Fourmaux and reigning champion Thierry Neuville dropped out of the top three during stage 16, again due to tire issues.
Rovanperä was followed by Takamoto Katsuta, eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier, Welshman Elfyn Evans and another Finn, Sami Pajari, for the top five spots.
The result means Evans is back as drivers' table leader, having temporarily lost the top spot to Tänak after Rally Estonia.
Rovanperä collected the maximum 35 points and lies in second place with 173 points, three points behind Evans. Ogier and Tänak are both on 163 points after the Finnish rally.
In the manufacturers' table, Toyota has a commanding lead with 458, to Hyundai's 371. M-Sport Ford lies in third place with 129 points.
There are six more rounds to go in the 2025 WRC season, culminating in Saudi Arabia in November. The next race takes place over the last weekend of August in Paraguay, the first of two South American races.
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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste, Andrew Whyte
