1 TANAK TAKES WRC TITLE – AND SIGNS FOR HYUNDAI
When: October 27
Where: Salou, Spain
In the end, it was something of a masterclass in how to play the press. Before Rally Turkey, a possible Hyundai deal was dead. Totally dead. Talking to Ott Tanak ahead of the trip to Marmaris, he was quite clear on his relations with the Korean firm’s WRC chief Andrea Adamo: “I don’t think we’re such good friends anymore.”
Lines like that make for fine copy and the story was duly trotted out that Tanak’s future lay back with Toyota – with an outside chance of M-sport managing director Malcolm Wilson being able to pull off another miracle to bring him back on a long-term deal.
It would be Toyota. In Turkey,
Tanak and Adamo played the game, shooting evils at each other. And when Adamo slapped Tanak on the back, was it just a touch harder than one might have expected? Possibly.
The only thing that didn’t add up was the hesitancy from Tommi Makinen on Toyota’s line-up for next season. More digging in Wales and by Spain it was clear – we’d been done.
Tanak was bound for Hyundai all along. Breaking the story in the middle of the opening day on a round where the Estonian could be crowned world champion certainly caught the attention of the watching world. Less than a week later and the deal was done. Tanak would be wearing blue and orange next season.
For team-mate Thierry Neuville, there was a moment’s pause as he prepared to find the right words of positivity to welcome a driver he’s spent the last few years fighting. He found them. Now he’ll have to live by them.
And that world title thing? Yeah, that was a slam-dunk courtesy of Tanak driving the stage of the season as he pummelled the best of the rest in the powerstage. And a world title is no less than Tanak deserves. He’s been the class of the field for the best part of two years now, the only thing which threatened to derail his title charge was the odd mechanical misdemeanour along the way. But this time Tanak kept his head, his speed and his lead at the top of the table.
Sunday in Salou was a special one for Estonia this time around.
And rightly so. DE