Poland WRC: Tanak mistake gives Neuville big lead
Thierry Neuville now has a clear run at Rally Poland victory after a mistake from his lead rival Ott Tanak on Sunday morning.
RaceEmotion / Hyundai Motorsport
Tanak had grabbed first place back from Neuville by setting the pace on the opening Orzysz stage, where the M-Sport Ford beat the Hyundai by 4.9 seconds and moved ahead overall by 1.8s.
But on the following Paprotki stage, Tanak clipped a bank and pitched himself into a spin, doing severe front end damage to his Fiesta.
He limped to the stage finish, losing nearly a minute and a half and falling behind the second Hyundai of Hayden Paddon to third overall.
But with no midday service Tanak will not be able to carry out sufficient repairs to contest the final two stages and is set to retire.
With the rain that blighted Friday having returned, most of the field began the final morning very cautiously.
Paddon in particular described his tactics as a "Sunday drive" and the new second-place man is 1m03.3s behind Neuville.
Sebastien Ogier is set to move up to third if his teammate Tanak has to retire, while M-Sport's World Rally Car rookie Teemu Suninen will advance into the top five behind Dani Sordo's Hyundai.
Further back, a mistake from Andreas Mikkelsen dropped him back behind Juho Hanninen into what will become 10th, while Craig Breen has cleared the WRC2 field and will be 11th.
Results after SS21:
| Pos. | Driver | Car | Time/Gap |
| 1 |  Thierry Neuville |
Hyundai | 2h25m39.6s |
|
2 |
 Hayden Paddon |
Hyundai | +1m03.3s |
| 3 |  Ott Tanak |
M-Sport Ford | +1m43.1s |
| 4 |  Sebastien Ogier |
M-Sport Ford | +2m08.9s |
| 5 |  Dani Sordo |
Hyundai | +2m30.3s |
| 6 |  Teemu Suninen |
M-Sport Ford | +2m47.2s |
| 7 | Stephane Lefebvre |
Citroen | +3m02.5s |
| 8 |  Mads Ostberg |
M-Sport Ford | +3m28.0s |
| 9 |  Elfyn Evans |
M-Sport Ford | +4m22.9s |
| 10 | Juho Hanninen |
Toyota | +4m28.5s |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Tanak has "bigger things to worry about" than WRC points deficit
Rovanpera: WRC technical overhaul for 2025 “makes no sense”
Why M-Sport has pinned all its efforts on a WRC reunion
IndyCar rolling out new version of aeroscreen for Long Beach
Why MotoGP’s COTA thriller was just what Liberty wanted to see
Why tough love has allowed Fourmaux to reach new WRC heights
Martin: Bagnaia still MotoGP title favourite in 2024 but fight is wide open
How Rovanpera showed his class above his WRC rivals in Kenya
How a new 'old' challenge is capturing the spirit of British rallying lore
How Lappi survived Swedish snow carnage to snap his lengthy WRC drought
The new WRC highs Neuville reached to defeat Monte master Ogier
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments