Joys for Tänak and Toyota
Chile knows only one name: Ött Tänak. After achieving success in the first edition dating back to 2019, in the same season in which he became world champion with Toyota, the Estonian driver reconfirmed himself as the fastest in the South American country by also winning the 2023 round, at the same time conquering the her second victory of the season after that obtained in Sweden. Over the course of the 16 scheduled stages, Tänak dominated the competition, at the same time taking advantage of his opponents’ mistakes and finishing with an advantage of 42 seconds over Neuvillefollowed in turn by Evans. Nothing to do for Kalle Rovanperä, who with his 4th place finish did not collect the necessary points to mathematically put his second consecutive world championship in the safe, which will inevitably force him to reschedule his plans in view of the last two events of this year. However, thanks to his success and the double achieved by Toyota in the Power Stage of El Poñen 2, the Japanese company can instead celebrate the conquest Constructors’ title 2023its third consecutive and fourth in its history.
Suninen: the costly mistake
The fourth and final day of the Chile Rally began with Thierry Neuville immediately winner of the first two races and able to catch up on his teammate Teemu Suninento the point of generating a derby at Hyundai valid for the second position in the general classification. At the end of SS14, in fact, the Belgian reduced his deficit to just under 7 seconds from the Finn, thus starting the only real battle still open. In front of the duo from the Korean manufacturer is Tänak, who without pushing or taking risks can afford to manage his gap of slightly more than 50 seconds. A situation therefore under control for the Estonian from Ford, as well as for the two Toyota drivers Evans and Rovanperä, with the reigning world champion (who blows out 23 candles today) who can allow himself the luxury of maintaining his leadership in the world championship even by arriving in fifth place overall, i.e. behind his Welsh teammate. However, at least for the Chilean stage, the Finn will have to postpone the celebration of his second world title to one of the next two rounds, the last of this season.
🏆CHAMPIONS🏆@TGR_WRC claim their third-subsequent manufacturers’ title 🙌 pic.twitter.com/T2EQ445Svb
— World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) October 1, 2023
The Neuville-Suninen duel was quickly resolved in favor of the Belgian already at the end of the match SS15again won by the Hyundai standard bearer but with an addition Suninen went off the road, which definitively ruins the latter’s primary objective of being able to get on the podium. In this way, Neuville takes a step forward in the ranking together with Evans and Rovanperä, 3rd and 4th respectively. Also and above all due to this episode, Toyota regains the great possibility of being able to win the 2023 Constructors’ title with the extra points of the Power Stage, managing to do so perfectly with the best time of Rovanperä and with the double completed by Evans, in addition to the 5 Katsuta’s 1st place.
WRC | Rally Chile, final ranking – Top 10
POS. | PILOT | CAR | TIME/GAP |
1 | Oct Tänak | Ford | 3:06:38.1 |
2 | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai | +42.1 |
3 | Elfyn Evans | Toyota | +1:06.9 |
4 | Kalle Rovanperä | Toyota | +2:11.0 |
5 | Takamoto Katsuta | Toyota | +4:41.5 |
6 | Oliver Solberg | Skoda (WRC2) | +8:18.5 |
7 | Gus Greensmith | Skoda (WRC2) | +8:44.3 |
8 | Sami Pajari | Skoda (WRC2) | +9:20.6 |
9 | Yohan Rossel | Citroën (WRC2) | +9:53.9 |
10 | Nikolay Gryazin | Skoda (WRC2) | +10:08.2 |
Next appointment
The Chile Rally represented the last round of this season on dirt tracks, with the world championship now preparing for an absolute novelty: from 26 to 29 Octoberin fact, the first ever edition of the Central European Rallythe twelfth and penultimate stage of this season which will include stages on asphalt scheduled in three different countries: Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. This will also be the last round in Europe before the final act of the season in Japan, in this case scheduled for mid-November.
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