CRUCIAL CROATIA RALLY WON’T BE EASY, SAYS TANAK
Ott Tanak starts what is already being billed as a season-saving Croatia Rally today (Thursday) braced for a “really demanding” event.
Tanak, the 2019 World champion, trails Hyundai team-mate and championship leader Thierry Neuville by 34 points after three rounds of what is proving to be a troubled campaign on his return to the South Korean manufacturer.
He was a distant fourth on the
Monte Carlo Rally opener in January after throttle woes and a trip into a ditch, before failing to go the distance in Sweden and Kenya.
The 36-year-old’s tenure of fourth place in the standings is mainly down to the 22 points he’s bagged on the Sunday legs of the first three events, making a strong Croatia Rally haul key to his title chances.
“Because the road characteristic is tough and with the low grip levels, cuts, crests and jumps it really is demanding,” Tanak said. “At the same time, there are a lot of blind corners, so altogether it’s pretty challenging.
“We want a trouble-free event, but then also we’re always here to fight for the win and for sure we’ll try hard to get that.”
While it’s been an off-form start to the season, Estonian Tanak can count on his late Monte Carlo Rally pace as an indication of what he can achieve in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1.
“Tarmac nowadays is quite unique in the calendar,” he said. “We only do a couple of events per year so it’s always special. We got a lot of Tarmac driving on the Monte this year and we were not far off the pace. By the end of the rally we were getting quite close, so at least we have that base.
“The main thing is to get the balance right and hopefully maximise the grip and traction as well. If you have all this you should have the package you need for Croatia. We were not too far off in Monte and we were improving. On all the events we have been discovering the car but now we have a base set-up we can begin with.”