Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja had a really bad time. During this morning, the first day of the Rally Estonia in which they were taking part, they were involved in a terrible accident.
The Hyundai Motorsport crew was busy carrying out a rally test to best prepare for the next two rounds of the 2024 WRC, Rally Latvia and Rally Finland, taking advantage of the event which this year is part of the European Rally Championship.
On one of the first three special stages that made up the morning lap of the first day, the 2019 world champion landed badly after a small jump – taken at high speed, however – with his i20 N Rally1 already veering to the right.
Once the four wheels of the i20 touched the ground, the car began to roll over, stopping its evolution several dozen meters further on.
Ott Tanak Hyundai Motorsport crash at Rally Estonia
Luckily both Tanak and Jarveoja came out of the nasty accident unharmed, but the i20 was literally destroyed (there was a lot of damage to the bodywork, but the chassis held up well). The survival cell withstood the impacts perfectly, protecting the Estonian crew, but the car will be difficult to recover.
Tanak’s test thus ended after a few kilometres, with a second accident after having already had to abandon Rally Poland last weekend, due to an accident with a deer on Special Stage 2. A bitter epilogue, because Tanak was the big favourite of the event and would have had the chance to close part of the gap that separated him from the leader of the Drivers’ Championship, his teammate Thierry Neuville.
Tanak is now in third place in the World rankings with 115 points against the 121 of Elfyn Evans who is back alone in second place and the 136 of Neuville who leads the rankings. There are still 6 events to go until the end of the World Championships, 2 of which on the surface that the 37-year-old loves most, fast dirt.
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