Ott Tanak looking for redemption in Latvia after Rally Poland
15th July 2024Hyundai’s Ott Tanak is looking for redemption in Rally Latvia after the Estonian duo weren’t able to demonstrate their ‘full potential’ in Poland.
Feature Image Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
The World Rally Championship is back this weekend for round eight of the 2024 championship, at Rally Latvia. Latvia poses as yet another fast-paced gravel event of which Tanak has previously competed in, over 10 years ago.
However, Tanak will be looking for better times and to redeem himself from the misfortunes of Rally Poland, last time out. In the previous event, Tanak was forced to retire from Poland on the Friday after he hit a deer, at 117mph, on a flat-out section on the first proper test.
From there he voluntarily – under team instruction – retired from Saturdays running with a target of good points on Sunday, where he finished top. Reflecting on his time in Poland, Tanak said:
“We weren’t able to demonstrate our full potential in Poland after our retirement on Friday, so hopefully Latvia will be a smoother ride.
“It is hard to say what to expect from the weekend but we will try to extract the most out of Rally Latvia.”
Tanak will head into Latvia with some relatively recent experience after he took part in another rally between the Poland and Latvia rounds.
The Estonian competed in his home rally, Rally Estonia, in the event’s national category, which was held as a European Rally Championship round. However, he came to a premature end by crashing out on Saturday.
Going into Latvia, the Estonian currently sits third in the drivers standings, six points behind Toyota’s Elfyn Evans and 21 points adrift of championship leader – and teammate – Thierry Neuville.
“I like driving these types of profiles, but while I have competed at this event in the past I haven’t been there for over ten years,” Tanak continued.
“The roads are very similar to what we have seen in previous rounds such as Poland, where we had a very successful Sunday, and surface-wise it is comparable to our home event in Estonia.”
The action gets underway in Latvia on Thursday, July 18, with an 11km super special stage opening up the event.
Read more WRC here:
- Sebastien Ogier to return in WRC Rally Latvia after accident
- Spectator safety issues lead to two cancelled stages in Rally Poland
- Tanak gives update after hitting a deer in Rally Poland
- Rovanpera to replace Ogier following car crash for Rally Poland
- Ogier to miss Rally Poland due to car accident
- Tanak secures Rally Italia Sardegna win by 0.2s over Ogier
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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.
