A five-minute time penalty incurred by Ott Tanak on the eve of his home World Rally Championship round is “the worst possible start” M-Sport Ford could have imagined, Team Principal Richard Millener has said.

The 1.6-litre engine in Tanak’s Puma Rally1 car had to be extracted and replaced with a new unit after this morning’s shakedown stage which the Estonian only managed a single run over.

A coarse-sounding engine note and flames spitting out of the exhaust when running at idle suggested problems; this was confirmed after a van had to tow him back to service in Tartu.

However, those hopes have been dashed as FIA rules state that an engine switch between scrutineering and the first-time control attracts a penalty from the event’s Clerk of the Course.

“We don’t know exactly [what the issue is], but what we do know is it’s a fairly significant engine issue, so we have no option but to change the engine,” explained Millener.

“It means we get a penalty before we start the rally, so really frustrating beginning to the rally and possibly the worst start we could have, but OK, that’s the situation we find ourselves in.

“Regulations state a five-minute time penalty so that’s going to put us at a serious disadvantage from the word go but we’ve got to switch focus – there’s nothing we can change about what’s happened.

“So, the focus will have to be on trying to find a way to salvage as much as possible from the event. That will be very difficult obviously, but we can’t change the situation.

“This is possibly the worst rally this could have happened on with all the support from his home fans, so we can only apologize to them. They will still support Ott and we hope to have the best rally we can from a set of very difficult circumstances,” added Millener.

Tanak was confident of challenging for the win on the loose surface fixture having enjoyed a productive pre-event test with Martin Jarveoja as well as triumphing on the national level Louna-Esti Ralli. However, after this morning’s setback, he was sounding less enthused about the weekend ahead.

“Obviously, the competition is gone. It is quite the shock for everyone, no question, but let’s see what we can bring. We have the opportunity to drive and get the job done but other than that not too much to say,” said Tanak.

“We have been struggling quite a bit [in the first half of the season] and actually we put in quite a big effort for this rally with the car – actually, the next two rallies.

“We tried to dig deep to get the best out of this car and I believed we did that but still I would not say we should be on the level with Toyota boys but from our side we did the maximum effort and it is a bit of a shame that this happened.”