The Good, The Bad and a smiling Ott Tanak

Top Performer – Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja

When Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja are in the mood, they are simply untouchable. This was the case in Sardinia as Tanak ended a victory drought stretching back to Arctic Rally Finland in February 2021. It was a dominant display highlighted by nine stage wins from the 21 tests, which offered a timely reminder of the supreme talent that secured the 2019 world title.

Far too often in that 15 month gap between drinks, there have been flickers of brilliance that more often than not were extinguished by misfortune or reliability woes with the fast but fragile Hyundai. In Sardinia, Tanak did have his own reliability concern threaten to disrupt another encouraging run, but fortunately the Estonian received a slice of luck for a change.

Organisers elected to cancel Friday final two stages due to an incident involving WRC2 competitor Laurent Battut moments after Tanak’s i20 N developed a transmission issue that would have cost him priceless time in his battle with then-leader Esapekka Lappi. This reprieve allowed Hyundai to fix the issue.

After emerging in the lead once Toyota’s Lappi crashed out during Saturday’s first stage, Tanak stamped his authority on the event. Six stage wins from a possible eight followed on Saturday, the Estonian appearing back to his brilliant best as he opened up a 46s lead over M-Sport’s Craig Breen.

The speed even surprised Tanak himself at times, given the i20 N is far from being the best Rally1 car in the field at the moment. Two more stages wins arrived on Sunday, despite backing off to preserve his margin, which served as further evidence that the Tanak of old was back and at his devastating best. In the end, he took the win by 1m03.2s from Breen.

“We have made some good steps,” said Tanak. “In Portugal, we were really struggling and actually we managed to improve….