WRC Rally Italy
WRC Sardinia leader Tanak "quite lucky" after late tyre scare
Rally Sardinia leader Ott Tanak says he was “quite lucky” after a tyre scare threatened to hamper his run through the final stage of the day.
Tom Howard
Edited: Jun 5, 2021, 7:26 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Hyundai driver had been imperious for the majority of Friday, winning five of the eight stages to build up a 19.4s lead over team-mate Dani Sordo, with Toyota’s Sebastian Ogier 36.2s back in third.
However, the Estonian suffered a Pirelli tyre delamination towards the end of the second run through the 14.97km Erula-Tula stage. Tanak finished 5.6s behind team-mates Sordo and Thierry Neuville, who posted identical times to top the stage.
The Estonian admitted it was lucky the tyre drama struck on a slow section of the stage, revealing that these issues are always “a bit scary” to manage.
“Apart from the last stage with the tyre issues I would say the rest has been quite good," said Tanak. “Basically I knew what happened we have had it recently. It is a bit of a lottery with this delamination. I was quite lucky that the end of the stage was so slow so I could carry it to the finish but for sure it is always a bit scary when these things happen.”
Read Also:
Tyre scare aside, Tanak produced a faultless drive to warrant high praise from Hyundai boss Andrea Adamo.
“Clearly, it has been a tricky day, but we know very well that Sardinia is a difficult rally," said Adamo. “This morning was tough, but we saw some improvements in the afternoon.
“Ott has done something quite amazing; he’s been in his own world. He has found a good compromise between being fast and not abusing the car’s speed.
“Dani has improved during the day, while Thierry - at the very minimum - we can say he has had an eventful day. We hope tomorrow he will be able to catch up.”
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC
Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport
Tanak was not the only Hyundai driver to suffer tyre issues as Neuville encountered two punctures in what turned out to be a challenging day for the Belgian.
The championship contender lacked confidence in the morning stages dropping significant time to his team-mates and the Toyota duo of Ogier and Elfyn Evans.
However, he did finish the day strongly with a stage win that leaves him in fifth position, 1.2s behind Evans.
“It was a difficult day for us. I struggled with confidence in the first stages,” said Neuville. “I didn’t get a good feeling, so we decided to go progressively throughout the day to get the speed. We changed a lot on the car, we went in the right direction with the settings.
“The car was a bit stiff this morning and we couldn’t get the traction, but things worked better this afternoon. Unfortunately, two punctures cost us a huge amount of time. I think we would have been able to close the gap to Sebastien without them.
"As a result, we lost a position on the road order for Saturday, but this rally is not over and maybe tomorrow is a positive turn and we might be free of issues.”
Rally Sardinia continues on Saturday with a further eight special stages beginning at 0708 BST.
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Italy WRC: Tanak holds comfortable lead from Sordo
Next article Italy WRC: Ogier grabs lead as Tanak retires after hitting rock
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Tom Howard
Rally US reveals further details ahead of WRC 2027 return
WRC
WRC
Rally US reveals further details ahead of WRC 2027 return
Sesks tight-lipped on WRC future after ERC season finale triumph
WRC
WRC
Sesks tight-lipped on WRC future after ERC season finale triumph
More from
Ott Tanak
Ott Tanak to make ARA debut on WRC fact finding mission
WRC
WRC
Ott Tanak to make ARA debut on WRC fact finding mission
Ott Tanak: Never say never on WRC 2027 return but “no plan” for the moment
WRC
WRC
Rally Greece
Ott Tanak: Never say never on WRC 2027 return but “no plan” for the moment
More from
Hyundai Motorsport
Josh McErlean to test 2027-spec M-Sport WRC car at ERC finale
WRC
WRC
Josh McErlean to test 2027-spec M-Sport WRC car at ERC finale
Adrien Fourmaux confident of WRC drive despite 2027 uncertainty
WRC
WRC
Adrien Fourmaux confident of WRC drive despite 2027 uncertainty
Latest news
Marc Marquez wary of MotoGP title rival Jorge Martin at Sepang: "Adrenaline is the best painkiller"
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
2 min
Marc Marquez wary of MotoGP title rival Jorge Martin at Sepang: "Adrenaline is the best painkiller"
Joan Mir "has a lot of answers" about crash-strewn 2026 MotoGP campaign as he explains illness
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 40 min
Joan Mir "has a lot of answers" about crash-strewn 2026 MotoGP campaign as he explains illness
Francesco Bagnaia calls Sepang his “best chance” and vows to “risk more”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Australian GP
50 min
Francesco Bagnaia calls Sepang his “best chance” and vows to “risk more”
Christian Horner admits he doesn't need F1 return after £67 million Red Bull payout
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
2 h
Christian Horner admits he doesn't need F1 return after £67 million Red Bull payout
Feature
Discover prime content
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.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe