Ott Tänak fourth in a tough inaugural Paraguay WRC rally
Thanks to a ruptured tire, Ott Tänak finished one place short of the podium at the weekend's Rally del Paraguay, the first time the event has been a full WRC race.
The Estonian, who races for Hyundai, had posted the second-best time at Thursday's initial shakedown run, losing only 0.6 seconds to Toyota's Takamoto Katsuta.
The race itself proved challenging, however.
"We didn't have anywhere near the performance, it was a difficult weekend in the car," Tänak told DirtFish after the race.
Problems hit other drivers too — on Saturday Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) dropped from first place after a puncture cost him two minutes. "In the end it's a pity to miss out on second place by a few seconds, but the biggest misfortune was probably Kalle's, who lost minutes," noted Tänak.
Other drivers to come to grief included Gregoire Munster (M-Sport) who had to drop out, and Katsuta, who ruptured a tire on the opening stage, and even eventual race winner Sébastien Ogier also lost nearly 40 seconds due to a flat tire on stage two.
Rovanperä started day three, Saturday in first place, and Tänak moved up to second overall.
The first stage of the final day of the race, Sunday, took place in very difficult conditions: The clay surface turned icy due to heavy rain and several drivers slid off the road. Tänak coped well with the difficult conditions and rose to third place overall, but his luck was short-lived, as he suffered another tire blowout in the final part of the penultimate stage of the rally, dropping him to fifth place.
Tänak's fifteen points from the race plus three from the power stage and two from Sunday's classification keeps him in overall fourth place in the drivers' table, with four races still to go. Welshman Elfyn Evans (Toyota) remains in first place with 198 points, followed by two more Toyota men, Ogier and Rovanperä, on 189 points. Whereas between them Ogier and Rovanperä have 10 world titles to their names, Evans is chasing his first ever. Tänak has 178 points, followed by his teammate at Hyundai, reigning world champion Thierry Neuville. Katsuta is on 88 points.
The next race is the second of two South American races, this time in Chile, starting Thursday, September 11.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Anders Nõmm
