Ott Tanak retired yesterday to give everything today and take home the maximum points guaranteed from both the Super Sunday of the Polish Rally and the Power Stage and, so far, he has succeeded in his aim.
The Estonian Hyundai Motorsport driver won the first two tests on Sunday, also coming close to scratching in the third and penultimate of the 19 scheduled in the Polish event. This led him to fly to the top of the Sunday standings ahead of Kalle Rovanpera – winner of the 20.80 kilometer SS18 Gmina Mrqgowo 2 – and Adrien Fourmaux.
If Tanak were to finish ahead in today’s standings, he would take home a haul of points which would partly go to soothe the anger over his retirement on SS2 due to an impact with a deer.
Behind the top three, Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville complete the Top 5 separated by just one point in favor of the Welshman, who however will manage to nibble away many points from the World Championship leader this weekend.
As regards the general classification, the top 4 positions continue to be occupied by Rovanpera, Evans, Fourmaux – who climbed onto the podium after Mikkelsen’s mistake – and Neuville.
Martins Sesks in turn managed to take advantage of Mikkelsen’s problems to recover fifth place overall, although today the Latvian is struggling much more to obtain noteworthy times at the wheel of his Ford Puma Rally1 not equipped with hybrid propulsion.
Important change in the WRC2 general classification, with Sami Pajari still in the lead but 26 seconds ahead of Oliver Solberg. The Norwegian moved up to second place by taking advantage of the puncture which slowed down Robert Virves.
The Estonian lost three positions, leaving second place to Solberg, while Nikolay Gryazin climbed onto the class podium at the wheel of the first Citroen C3 Rally2.
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