Ott Tanak primed to win in Poland

Ott Tanak has extended his lead at Rally Poland with only a short final leg between him and his maiden victory in the World Rally Championship.

The Estonian Ford driver completed the longest leg of the four-day event 21.3sec clear of Andreas Mikkelsen’s Volkswagen Polo R, with Hayden Paddon completing the provisional podium a further 6.5sec behind in a Hyundai i20.

Tanak, with the DMack shod Fiesta won all of the morning’s three speed tests, again making the most of his lower starting position on the road.

With a repeat of the stages in the afternoon, Mikkelsen initially regained a few seconds before Tanak stemmed the loss, leaving the Estonian looking forward to Sunday when heavy rain is forecast to replace the 30˚C temperatures.

“I’m relaxed and hope I have enough in hand for tomorrow,” said Tanak.

“I’ve led for the last two days so why not tomorrow? I was flat out in every corner this morning and did everything I could to extend the lead. I knew the afternoon would be tough in the extreme heat, it’s not easy for the tyres,” he said.

Paddon was happier with his car’s set-up after overnight changes.

His driving was ragged at times as he struggled to tame the i20 in the loose morning stages, but the New Zealander remained hot on Mikkelsen’s heels.

“It’s still very close up front between me and Andreas, with Ott doing a good job a bit further ahead,” said Paddon.

“I enjoyed this morning’s pass with some more nice stages before things got rougher in the afternoon. In the hot conditions, the car was moving about a bit in places but I was pleased with the improvements we’d made overnight.

“We were committed in the afternoon loop, and just concentrating on our own rally. We’ll prepare for a final podium push on tomorrow’s four stages. The rain that’s forecast could make things very interesting!”

Thierry Neuville climbed to fourth in the opening stage.

The Belgian survived a bizarre incident when his i20’s gear stick broke and fell into the footwell and he also complained his pace notes were too slow for the roads, which were more technical than yesterday but still lightning fast.

Jari-Matti Latvala overshot a junction on his way to fifth in a Polo R.

The Finn finally found his rhythm and overhauled despondent team-mate Sebastien Ogier, who was on a hiding to nothing in the sandy conditions from his position as road opener.

Stephane Lefebvre scored his maiden WRC stage win this afternoon as he retained seventh ahead of Abu Dhabi DS 3 team-mate Craig Breen.

Eric Camilli and Mads Ostberg completed the leaderboard.

Another challenging day for Australia’s Scott Pedder who did improve his overall position from 24th to 22nd while he moved up in the WRC2 standings from equal 10th to eighth.

Pedder was sitting as high as fifth in WRC2, but the final stage saw him lose valuable time after going off the road and then suffering a puncture.

“It was incredibly disorientating, we couldn’t work out which way was back to the road, so we probably lost 30 seconds alone there,” said Pedder.

“Then about two to three kilometres down the road, over a flat crest, we landed on an imbedded rock in the road at just the wrong angle and immediately we got a flat. We drove the last nine or so kilometres on it and we calculated we lost probably a further minute and 10 seconds.

“On the positive side it was an incredible morning, the car felt great and I was really happy with how I drove. This afternoon, yeah, these things happen but it’s still frustrating to see a good result disappear.”

Sunday’s final leg is the shortest with just 59.60km of competition. Drivers tackle two identical lops of stages, split by service in Mikolajki.

The final Sady test forms the live TV Power Stage with bonus points for the fastest three crews.

VIDEO: Morning Stages

VIDEO: Afternoon Stages

POSITIONS – Leg 2 – Rally Poland