Ott Tanak has soared to victory in Rally Argentina, his first win with the Toyota World Rally Championship team.
Tanak recovered from minor steering damage that dropped him down to ninth on Friday to win ten stages and take victory by 37.7 seconds in front of a hundred thousand spectators on the popular El Condor powerstage, ahead of second-placed Thierry Neuville.
Neuville began the weekend well by winning the Thursday evening spectator stage, falling back on Friday only to pass Citroen’s Kris Meeke on Saturday. He gained further breathing room when Meeke dropped two minutes with a front left puncture later in the day, dropping to eighth.
Meeke finished the weekend in seventh, however, after Esapekka Lappi ‘s continued streak of bad luck left him in eighth, after another puncture on Sunday morning which was followed by a stall on the uphill climb on the tough El Condor powerstage.
Dani Sordo proved once again why he has a reputation for consistency with a clean rally to third place.
After an early stint as rally leader on Friday morning, Andreas Mikkelsen became engaged in a weekend-long battle for fourth with Sebastien Ogier after a front right puncture dropped him down the order.
Ogier, never a fan of the rough stages of Rally Argentina, was only 3.8 seconds ahead of Mikkelsen going into the powerstage after a cautious few days. However, the Frenchman was able to stretch out his advantage to four seconds come the end of the rally.
Elfyn Evans struggled to replicate the pace he showed in Argentina last year and had to settle for sixth.
Teemu Suninen finished in ninth and WRC2 winner Pontus Tidemand in 10th. The Swede had been embroiled in an intense Skoda battle for victory with team-mate Kalle Rovanpera before a dramatic roll on Sunday morning ended Rovanpera’s rally prematurely.
Both Jari-Matti Latvala retired from the event with broken suspension on Friday morning, and Craig Breen followed suit after a heavy roll in the fog-shrouded run of Cuchilla-Nevada.
