Christian Loriaux didn’t want to make a fool of himself. For a moment, nobody knew. Everybody looked at everybody else. It was like somebody pressed the pause button in Hyundai’s command center.
Then it came. Yes. Ott Tänak had taken his first win of the season. By two-tenths of a second. The banging the table moment had gone, but the emotion built and built as the ensuing seconds passed. WRC program manager Loriaux looked simultaneously stunned, bemused, relieved and delighted.
“Wow.”
He spoke for everybody.
There’s nothing new about an i20 winning in Sardinia, the Korean brand has only been beaten twice in the past nine years on the island. But this one was special. Special not least because it had been quite unexpected.
Once confirmation came, Hyundai's WRC program manager Loriaux led the celebrations
There’s no denying the WRC’s new scoring system has devalued overall victory significantly – a point made first thing Sunday morning when Ott Tänak was praised for closing the gap to leader Sébastien Ogier.
“The rally was finished yesterday,” he said, before continuing with a heavier layer of sarcasm: “Like the regulations say, the rally is not important anymore.”
We’ve been over this, but it’s worth registering, once again, the Estonian is absolutely right. With Ogier having provisionally bagged the 18 bonus points for P1 on Saturday night, Sunday was focused solely on the seven on offer for being fastest across the final day’s 22 miles, with an additional five handed out to the driver quickest across the 4.4-mile powerstage.
Celebrating an actual rally win? That’s so last year.
Then Tänak won. And celebrated the win. Eventually.
Celebrating a good, old fashioned WRC win in the traditional fashion. On the roof, arms aloft
Like the watching world, he never seriously considered Ogier might ship 6.2 seconds in the second and final run through Sassari, but a tire off a rim had slowed the lead Toyota for the event’s final mile and a bit. That was enough for Tänak to be elevated to P1 at the finish.
Standing talking with co-driver Martin Järveoja, he was very much a man minding his own business as the full drama unfolded. Moments later, he was standing on the roof and pointing to the skies. That raw emotion is still there. The top step of Sunday’s proper podium is still the place to be.
Even better, for the first time in a while, the winner walked away with the most points as Tänak took 25 against 22 for Ogier.
“It’s a great emotion,” he said. “It doesn’t give us anything, just a good name on the board. I must say, I was probably more emotional than I normally am by winning a rally. Like I said, I was not expecting it at all, I was just focusing on Sunday and, yeah, just bringing as many points as possible.”
There were ironies all over the place, with Tänak eclipsing his Sassari misery at missing out on a win with Toyota when his Yaris hit power steering problems in 2019. For Ogier, missing the win by two-tenths was the flip side of his defeat (by precisely the same record-breaking margin) of Jari-Matti Latvala in Jordan, 2011.
And, of course, it was the second time the eight-time world champion had lost Sardinia by less than a second – on this same stage.
Tänak sympathized. Having talked about his win, he added: “From the other side, it’s a really cruel way, you know, how it’s been taken from Séb. I can only say that I’ve been there before; I’ve had 40 seconds in hand and it’s still been taken. It’s rough, but today, of course, I’m happy.”
And so, seconds later, was Loriaux.
One of the key men responsible for the i20’s purple patch said: “Two kilometers from the end, we thought: “OK. It’s over.” And then suddenly when the time came… actually, I didn’t jump [up] in the end because I thought it could be a mistake in the timing. And the worst would be to celebrate and then be told: ‘No, actually, we made a mistake. We didn’t win it.’
“It was a bit surreal, but in a nice way.”
Across the road, Loriaux’s joy was Latvala’s agony. For the second time in his career, the Finn was on the receiving end of a 0.2s loss in the WRC. Latvala’s a traditionalist. For him a world championship rally win is still very much a world championship rally win. And this one had slipped from Toyota’s communal grasp.
Sitting back in his seat, Latvala pushed his cap high on his head and stared straight ahead – sharing the suspended animation with Hyundai.
An hour or so later and Latvala had gathered his thoughts. Predictably, they were an insightful as they were considered.
“In one way,” he told DirtFish, “I believe in karma that, what you get [a] little bit by luck, one day you have to give it away. I think this happened with [Sébastien] Ogier. You know, he got that victory in 2011 by 0.2, and today he had to give it away. But you have to remember that he had to give it to Ott Tänak, who lost a victory in this stage in 2019 with the steering problem. So, this karma is, turning things around and giving everybody the same that you are on the same level.”
Latvala’s anything but shallow, but that was deeper than even we were expecting.
Mile-for-mile, it’s hard to imagine a stage that has delivered more twists, turns and intrigue than the stunning run from Sassari to Argentiera. And second time through on Sunday, the road to the WRC’s most famous beach was at its most dangerous. Continued dry weather and a fairly laissez-faire re-surfacing policy meant there were some monster rocks around in the powerstage. SS16 provided a genuine sting in the tail.
But it also offered a demonstration of just how spectacular these current Rally1 cars are. You may have noticed, the first half of the year has provided a fair bit of debate over the future direction for the championship. For me, that last stage demonstrated why these cars can and should continue to deliver at the sport’s highest level.
When 2025 was first up for grabs, I was definitely leaning more towards Rally2. Across round six, Sami Pajari demonstrated quite magnificently, second tier tech is clearly capable of coping with the worst the Italian island could throw at it. But something has to give. On this occasion, it was the speed – the fastest Rally2 was 5s a mile slower than Thierry Neuville’s Hyundai i20 Rally1 Hybrid on the last test.
Granted, it’s a skill to drive a rally car at 99.9% of its potential, delivering it to the finish in time for the wheels to fall off as it’s pushed into the trailer. And yes, Neuville, Tänak and co. would be more than capable of doing that in Rally2, but would the spectacle be the same?
I’m not so sure.
That’s a question – and an answer – for next week’s meeting of the World Motor Sport Council. The here and now is about Hyundai’s continued ascendancy in this year’s championships. This is something we will investigate more closely in the days and weeks between Alghero and Mikołajki, where the WRC gathers for Rally Poland.
Neuville’s lead might have dipped from 26 to 18 points at the top of the drivers’ table – but much to the delight of everybody in blue and orange, the Belgian’s closest rival is his team-mate Tänak. Even better, the team’s lead in the makes’ race has mushroomed from four to 13 points.
Later this week, you’ll be able to read Loriaux’s thoughts on the team’s “dark” 2023. Those days are firmly behind them now. Watching Tänak and Järveoja diving into the harbor, it was impossible not to smile at this team’s turnaround.
