Rally Sweden: Tanak secures Ford’s first win in 2023
13th February 2023Ott Tanak sailed to victory in Rally Sweden to provide M-Sport Ford with their first victory since the 2022 season opener, in Monte-Carlo.
M-Sport Ford went without a win after Monte-Carlo last season, where Sebastien Loeb secured the season opener in 2022. Now, Tanak has provided the team with their latest win with an incredible performance at the wintery Rally Sweden.
Three stages lined up the final day of running, Vastervik opened up the last day and was quickly repeated ahead of the Wolf Power Stage which was set on the Umea course.
How the final day unfolded…
Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera secured the first stage win of the day as the defending world champion pipped Tanak to stage victory by 1.5 seconds. Despite a troubled time in Sweden, Rovanpera sat just outside the podium-scoring positions in fourth – 3.8 seconds away from Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville who occupied the position.
While the leading Ford driver, Tanak, missed out the opportunity to win the stage by a slight margin, the Estonian still increased his lead by three seconds – despite a brakes issue.
Neuville went on to secure the stage win on SS17, the second pass of Vastervik, as the Belgian hunted down his teammate – Craig Breen – for second place. Going into the Wolf Power Stage, Umea 2, Neuville was only separated by 9.5 seconds to Breen.
However, drama occurred for Breen ahead of the power stage. The Irishman checked into the final stage one-minute late and soon incurred a 10-second penalty. Victory was all but assured for Tanak after Breen’s misfortunes but Neuville temporarily moved up into second after Breen’s penalty demoted the Irishman to third, by 0.5 seconds.
Even with Breen’s 10 second penalty, Neuville made a mistake into a slow left-hand corner on the final stage. The Belgian went in too deep and slammed the side of his Hyundai into the stationary snowbank but the Hyundai driver was able to continue on with minimal issues.
Furthermore, Breen who was already on the stage when Neuville’s incident occurred managed to pip his teammate to second-place by 1.3 seconds.
Toyota’s Rovanpera and Elfyn Evans rounded out the top five of the standings, in P4 and P5 respectively, with the defending world champion 25 seconds away from Tanak while the Welsh driver finished over one-minute and 24 seconds behind the leading time.
Podium:
- Ott Tanak, M-Sport Ford
- Craig Breen, Hyundai
- Thierry Neuville, Hyundai
That’s all for the article; Rally Sweden: Tanak secures Ford’s first win in 2023!
What did you think of Ott Tanak’s victory? Let us know in the comments!
Read more WRC here:
- 2023 Rally Sweden: Tanak snatches lead away from Breen
- 2023 Rally Sweden: Breen leads Hyundai’s charge on second day
- Rovanpera sets unbeaten SS1 time in WRC Rally Sweden
- Rovanpera tops Rally Sweden Shakedown
- 2023 WRC Rally Sweden Preview
- Rossel secures victory in Monte-Carlo after Gryazin penalty
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