Tanak maintains 100% record in WRC Rally Chile as Toyota take title

2nd October 2023 0 By Kamron Kent

M-Sport Ford’s Ott Tanak has maintained his 100% WRC Rally Chile record, since its inauguration in 2019, while Toyota has sealed the manufacturer’s crown.

Tanak has maintained his 100% win record in Chile since he last secured the win, in the South American country, when it was first introduced to the championship in 2019 when the Estonian raced for Toyota. At the same time, Toyota has now clinched the team’s championship.

The M-Sport driver played a masterstroke in tyre strategy across the weekend, going for exclusively soft tyres on Friday and then all-hard tyres on Saturday to give the 2019 world champion a 58.3s advantage over Hyundai’s Teemu Suninen as the day began.

With nearly a minute in hand, the Ford Puma driver took a cautious approach to the final day yet saved some of his tyres for the Wolf Power Stage. Tanak managed to take the overall rally victory at the end of Stage 16 but he did not walk away with maximum points as he finished the power stage in fourth, behind the trio of title challengers.

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville started the day in third place, 13.9s behind his teammate Suninen. However, the Belgian – who was in the hunt for the 2023 title – went on to secure three stage wins to cut the gap down.

Second place was all but assured after Suninen, who had his Belgian teammate breathing down his neck, found himself out of the running after he fell down a bank and into the trees on the penultimate stage. In turn, this promoted Toyota’s Elfyn Evans up to third place.

By the end of the day, Tanak remained out in front ahead of the two championship challengers: Neuville and Evans, who finished second and third.

However, as Toyota’s championship leader Kalle Rovanpera secured maximum points (5pts) from the Wolf Power Stage and a fourth-place finish in the rally, it means Neuville has now been knocked out of contention for the title as the Belgian sits 62 points behind with a total of 60 points remaining.

Toyota Takamoto Katsuta completed the regular WRC Rally1 competitors in fifth place four minutes off Tanak’s overall time and two and a half minutes behind Rovanpera. WRC debutants, M-Sport Ford, Gregoire Munster and Alberto Heller completed their first events in Rally1 machinery down in 13th and 15th respectively.

The WRC2 support category rounded out the top 10 as Oliver Solberg (sixth) secured his final victory of the season at his seventh – and final point-scoring – round of the season, ahead of Gus Greensmith (seventh) and Sami Pajari (eighth) in second and third respectively, in the WRC2 class.

Fellow WRC2 drivers, Yohan Rossell and Nikolay Gryazin completed the top 10 in ninth and 10th.

As a result of Hyundai’s misfortunes with Suninen and Toyota’s third, fourth and fifth place finishes, it means the Japanese marquee has secured the manufacturer title. On the other hand, the driver’s championship can be decided at the new tri-country Central European Rally which gets underway on October 26-29, if Rovanpera outscores Evans.

That’s all for the article; Tanak maintains 100% record in WRC Rally Chile as Toyota take title!

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

CategoryNews Rallying WRC