Massive Tänak push triggers three-way podium fight

Ott Tänak was in a class of his own Saturday afternoon on the Monte Carlo Rally

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Ott Tänak has turned the fight for second place into a three-way battle, putting the hammer down on Saturday afternoon of the Monte Carlo Rally to put himself firmly into podium contention.

The 2019 world champion was lucky to avoid crashing out entirely on Friday’s SS6, going into a ditch and ripping most of the rear bodywork away from his Hyundai i20 N Rally1. But on Saturday afternoon, with the setup finally to his liking, he dominated the timesheets.

All three Saturday afternoon tests were topped by Tänak – but it was the middle stage of the loop, Aucelon – Recoubeau-Jansac, where he simply obliterated his rivals, winning the stage by nine seconds from rally leader Sébastien Ogier and beating the rest by double digits.

Setup was one element of the change that allowed Tänak to dominate – the other was making sense of the new Hankook asphalt tires.

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Setup changes at midday service finally unlocked front-running pace from Tänak's i20

“We’ve been working far too long on the setup to find,” he said. “I didn’t get any kilometers at all on the slick tire [before now]. It didn’t work for me in the beginning but now this afternoon it started to click and immediately I found the rhythm. It’s been much better.”

Tänak is still fourth place overall but is now 6.8s from second place – and even closer to the final podium place.

Elfyn Evans and Adrien Fourmaux, making his maiden WRC outing for Hyundai, spent all of Saturday battling for second place. They traded places three times in three stages: Evans had initially retaken the place on SS13 but backed off on the middle test of the loop, worried he might make a rally-ending mistake.

“It’s a horrible stage,” Evans said at the finish line of Aucelon – Recoubeau-Jansac. “There’s literally nowhere to go if you make the slightest mistake and there’s loads of mud on every corner. We tried a few times but mid-stage we had a few big slides, so naturally eased off a little bit. But we paid the price for that.”

There was no such caution on Saturday’s final stage: Evans took another five seconds out of Fourmaux on La-Bâtie-des-Fonts – Aspremont to give himself a 4.3s cushion over the lead Hyundai.

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I have no answer. I dunno. Kalle Rovanperä on his lack of pace during Saturday's Monte stages

Fourmaux had begun the loop suggesting the only driver he would be keeping an eye on behind him was Kalle Rovanperä. But now it’s his team-mate he needs to worry about: the gap has shrunk to 2.5s, as Fourmaux suggested he’d lost the same feeling from the morning loop which had allowed him to initially catch and pass Evans for second.

Two-time world champion Rovanperä appears completely lost in fifth place, ending Saturday almost half a minute behind Tänak. His total time loss over the day relative to Tänak was a whopping 44.2s.

Asked if he’d found any answers in the final stage of the day, Rovanperä replied: “Yeah, I found myself quite slow again.

Rovanperä had previously suggested he needed to adapt his driving style to the new Hankook dry asphalt tire but was clutching at straws to make sense of his Saturday pace: “I have no answer,” he admitted. “I dunno.”

Takamoto Katsuta, Sami Pajari and Thierry Neuville held station in sixth, seventh and eighth places respectively, with none having anything to fight for on the penultimate day. Despite his position, Neuville still had a minor incident, damaging the right-rear rim of his i20 when he lost the rear and hit a bank. Josh McErlean climbed up to ninth place, ahead of the WRC2 field.

Leo Rossel

Léo Rossel is currently on course for a WRC2 podium on debut – but will it be second or third place?

Yohan Rossel is all set to kick off his 2025 WRC2 campaign with a victory but behind, the battle for second rages on between Eric Camilli and Léo Rossel, Yohan’s younger brother and Citroën team-mate.

The younger Rossel and Camilli were effectively inseparable on the timesheets: Camilli started Saturday with only 1.5s in hand over his rival but ended it 0.5s behind, demoted to third place.

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