Ott Tänak retired from Rally Chile for a second time in order to protect his spare engine.
The Estonian had been leading the 11th round of this year’s World Rally Championship after five of Friday’s six stages, but stopped suddenly on the final test when the engine inside his i20 N Rally1 expired.
Tänak restarted on Saturday morning, confirming to DirtFish that an engine he hadn’t used since February’s Rally Sweden was now fitted to his car.
In rainy conditions and running first on the road, Tänak set some awesome pace to win the first two stages of the day but retired the car before the last test of the loop, electing to drive back to service instead.
Explaining that decision back in Concepción, Tänak said: “By regulation you’re allowed two engines per year. This is actually also the engine which we had a problem in Sweden and it’s also not in a good shape. So it was already getting on the limit on these two stages. So yeah, we try to save it for Super Sunday and hopefully it can take us through four stages.
“Basically, yeah, we came back [today] not to damage the engine too much and have a good look in the data, have a good preparation for tomorrow and do everything we can from our side.”
Tänak will be first on the road on Sunday, which could be the best place to be depending on the conditions. But even if he does score well on Super Sunday, this weekend will be a blow to his title challenge as he was already trailing Elfyn Evans by 18 points.
“I mean, yeah, let’s see what the situation is after this rally,” he said. “Like I said, I will for sure do my best if I start the rally. It doesn’t really matter if it’s for the championship or is it for the rally.
“I mean, you always try to keep everything from your side. Otherwise, there is no point to go to the rally. So, I mean, some kind of excitement and motivation still needs to be there. And that’s part of the job.”
