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Ott Tanak might have gone fastest on the opening stage of his home round of the World Rally Championship but it’s Elfyn Evans and Esapekka Lappi who share the overall advantage heading into Friday’s first full day of action in Estonia.
Saddled by a five-minute penalty after engine failure in shakedown prompted a replacement unit to be fitted, Tanak’s hopes of a second win of the year are essentially over.
But despite yet another setback during what is proving to be an increasingly tough season for the M-Sport Ford team, the 2019 champion hasn’t completely given up.
“Obviously the competition is gone, it’s quite a shock for everyone, no question, but let’s see what the weekend can bring,” the 35-year-old said. “We still have the opportunity to drive and we’ve still got to get the job done.
“We’ve been struggling quite a bit [this season], we did a big effort for this rally, we tried to dig quite deep and we did the maximum effort so it’s a shame it finished like this.”
M-Sport team chief Richard Millener said: “There’s nothing we can change about what’s happened so the focus now will be to try to salvage as much as possible from the event. We fully appreciate the country we’re in and the expectation and support from the home fans.”
Undeterred, Tanak edged Toyota driver Evans and Hyundai-run Lappi by 0.6s through Thursday evening’s 3.35-kilometre Tartu vald stage with world champion Kalle Rovanpera fourth quickest as he bids to win Rally Estonia for a third season running.
Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville ended up fifth fastest followed by Takamoto Katsuta, who was sixth quickest for Toyota, with Teemu Suninen seventh best on his return to the WRC’s top tier with the works Hyundai squad.
Tanak’s team-mate Pierre-Louis Loubet was eighth ahead of early WRC2 pacesetter Miko Marczyk, an established superspecial stage specialist. Georg Linnamae and Andreas Mikkelsen complete the top 10 overnight.
Friday’s route stars with the 24.35-kilometre Peipsiaare test, the rally’s longest stage, and includes two more stages prior to midday service at the Raadi airfield in out-of-town Tartu.
The three morning stages are repeated in the afternoon with the Neeruti stage, run twice on Saturday in 2022, now used once at the end of Friday.
