Ott Tanak says the primary objective for him and the M-Sport team at Rally Italia Sardegna is to reduce the performance gap he believes currently exists between them and their rivals in the FIA World Rally Championship.

Tanak completed Rally de Portugal earlier this month fifth overall and said in his post-event comments those involved with the Puma Rally1 project still had a “big job” on their hands to improve its speed on gravel, despite growing confidence in the Ford’s handling.

The Estonian showed moments of what he and the Blue Oval-badged car are capable off; they led by three seconds after the opening Friday loop only to surrender it when the front-right tyre came off its rim. It also emerged a recalcitrant water pump threatened to sideline them only for some handiwork at the remote service by M-Sport mechanics.

While largely satisfied by his most recent effort, Tanak has continued to push for key up-dates to be signed off, saying these are needed to consistently register points on loose surface meetings knowing how decisive these could prove come the end of the season.

“Sardinia is a unique rally in many ways; the roads are demanding with very low grip conditions. At the same time, very narrow and fast between trees and rock faces. I always enjoy driving there,” he said.

“All the M-Sport team – together with the Ford Performance guys in the US – have been on it to bring on the next steps in our performance and we have a busy test day before Sardinia,” added Tanak, who occupies second in the drivers’ standings. “We are looking into everything to extract some extra speed.

“The target is to get another step closer to our competitors. Things will take a bit of time, but I am sure that improving step by step we will be there one moment!”

Sharing Tanak’s train of thought ahead of the 20th instalment of Rally Italia Sardegna is M-Sport Ford Team Principal Richard Millener. He says getting the fundamentals in place, and ensuring their number one driver is happy with the package, continues to be everyone’s motivating factor.

“Portugal was a tough battle, but we have set some good groundwork for the upcoming challenge in Sardinia,” he said. “As a team, we have some good memories here with Ott’s victory in 2017, so we can hope to see a repeat of that this year.

“Ott’s proven his pace, he has proven he can win, so now we need to continue to support him to do that,” he added. “He is still fighting for the Championship and we are hoping we will see that fight get even closer after Sardinia.”