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Rally Estonia a 'crucial point' for Tanak’s WRC title bid
Ott Tanak says his home round of the World Rally Championship in Estonia marks a “crucial point” in the title race that he cannot let “slip away.”
The 2019 world rally champion heads to Estonia having ignited his title bid after scoring a breakthrough win at Acropolis Rally Greece last month, ending his and Hyundai’s winning drought that stretched back to October last year.
The much-needed win lifted Tanak to third in the standings, 12 points behind championship leader Toyota’s Elfyn Evans with seven rounds of the season remaining.
Having honed his craft on fast gravel rallies, the Hyundai driver will be among the favourites to challenge for victory across this week’s 20 stages. Tanak has previously won the rally on four occasions albeit only one of those was a round of the WRC in 2020.
Tanak says his Hyundai team has been busy preparing for rally which he feels will be vital for his title hopes.
“We’ve just finished three rough rallies where we showed some strong performance,” said Tanak.
“Now, we move on to a different challenge – Rally Estonia is the first of two really fast and smooth gravel rounds, which I personally enjoy because they are the type of roads I learnt to compete on.
“These events are purely performance based, meaning they ask a lot from the car – the gaps will be small and speeds will be high. The setup needs to be very precise and balanced, and the aerodynamic package also plays a big role.
“We’ve had a busy last week preparing for the rally as we need to do our best in Estonia. This is a crucial point in the championship fight, we can’t let it slip away.”
Hyundai has focussed its 2025 car developments on tackling fast gravel events which has been weakness for the i20N Rally1 car. However, team principal Cyril Abiteboul believes it is time for its work to now deliver results.
“It was important to get our first win of the year at Acropolis Rally as we look to close the gap and reinvigorate our championship challenge in the second half of the season,” said Abiteboul.
“We now move on to a different gravel profile for the next two rounds, where we will be targeting clean weekends, strong points and a continuation of our podium streak.
“We have to remember that this is not a surface we have historically performed well on, but with so many long days and nights put in by the whole team, it’s time for everyone’s hard work on and off the stages to come to fruition.”
Rally Estonia is set to begin with the opening stage on Thursday evening at 1805 BST.
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