Stage report
WRC Rally Italy
WRC Sardinia: Tanak holds commanding lead amid red flag confusion
Hyundai’s Ott Tanak moved into a commanding Rally Sardinia lead after dominating Saturday’s stages before a red flag triggered confusion on the final test.
Tom Howard
Edited: Jun 4, 2022, 8:28 PM
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The 2019 world champion won six of the day’s eight stages to move into a 46s lead over M-Sport’s Craig Breen, before the final stage of the day ended in bizarre fashion.
Officials threw the red flag to suspend Stage 17 to allow the recovery of Adrien Fourmaux’s stricken M-Sport Ford Puma after the Frenchman ran off the road and crashed out of fifth position. The crew emerged from the incident unscathed.
Third-placed Dani Sordo was first to come across the incident. The Hyundai driver then squeezed by the stricken Puma that had partially blocked the road and completed the stage at a reduced speed and will receive a notional time.
Organisers elected to restart the stage but it appeared a marshal erroneously showed a red flag, resulting in Breen and Tanak slowing to a crawl.
Fourth-placed Pierre-Louis Loubet, who was ahead of Breen and Tanak on the road, completed the stage at normal speed to add to the confusion. It is unclear if the M-Sport driver was shown the red flag.
It is expected national times will be awarded to Breen and Tanak, but organisers are yet to confirm the overall classification for the day. Championship leader Kalle Rovanpera and Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta will however inherit fifth and sixth positions following Fourmaux’s crash.
A brief statement from an FIA spokesperson read: “After the stage restarted following Fourmaux's accident crews were shown a red flag and the FIA is investigation the incident."
Craig Breen, Paul Nagle, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1
Photo by: M-Sport
The afternoon had begun with crews facing incredibly hot conditions in the afternoon with the ambient temperatures hitting more than 35 degrees on top of the already increased cockpit temperatures.
The heat failed to distract Tanak as he swept to his fourth consecutive stage win on Stage 14 after setting a searing pace in his i20 N, despite battling an engine issue.
Tanak emerged 6.2s faster than an improving Kalle Rovanpera to extend his lead over Breen to 37.2s as the latter was forced to drive around a problem with his Puma.
Loubet stepped up his assault on third overall by taking 2.3s out of rival Sordo.
Behind, a soft front left tyre cost Fourmaux 34s dropping as he began to fall into the clutches of Rovanpera in the battle for fifth overall.
Tanak was once again in command on Stage 15 as he notched up his sixth stage win of the rally to increase his lead to 45.0s over Breen as the Irishman dropped 7.8s.
Breen had been battling issue but gave nothing away when quizzed at the stage end.
“The giggling pin fell out of the laughing shaft but I managed to get it back in, so we are okay,” he joked when asked about the problem.
Dani Sordo, Candido Carrera, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Sordo survived a scare 300 metres from the stage end when his i20 N briefly hooked into a ditch on the slippery gravel. However, the Spaniard somehow wrestled the car back to clock the second fastest stage time to move within 12s of Breen.
Katsuta, like Breen, was also managing a radiator issue with his GR Yaris and lost 30s on the test.
The second pass through the afternoon stages saw Tanak remain in unbeaten as he topped the times on Stage 16.
Tanak admitted he wasn’t pushing but was still able to take a second out of Breen to deny the Ford driver a second stage win of the event.
Sordo rode his luck again after his i20 N took a big gulp of water at the water splash and briefly stalled. On this occasion he only lost 1.6s to Loubet in the fight for third.
Evans suffered a far more serious issue as the left rear suspension collapsed on his GR Yaris which put him tint retirement for the second time in as many days. The Welshman tried to keep going before pulling off onto an access road.
Toyota team-mate Katsuta continued to lose time as he carefully nursed his wounded GR Yaris to the finish.
Rally Sardinia is set to host four more stages on Sunday.
Results:
Cla Driver/Codriver Car Total Time Gap Interval 1 Ott Tanak
Martin Jarveoja Hyundai i20 N Rally1 2:32'17.300 2
Craig Breen
Paul Nagle Ford Puma Rally1 2:33'03.300 46.000 46.000 3
Dani Sordo
Candido Carrera Hyundai i20 N Rally1 2:33'24.100 1'06.800 20.800 4 Pierre-Louis Loubet
Vincent Landais Ford Puma Rally1 2:33'37.600 1'20.300 13.500 5
Adrien Fourmaux
Alexandre Coria Ford Puma Rally1 2:34'31.200 2'13.900 53.600 6 Kalle Rovanperä
Jonne Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2:34'40.500 2'23.200 9.300 7
Takamoto Katsuta
Aaron Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2:35'58.700 3'41.400 1'18.200 8 Gus Greensmith
Jonas Andersson Ford Puma Rally1 2:37'09.100 4'51.800 1'10.400 9
Nikolay Gryazin
Konstantin Aleksandrov Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:38'11.800 5'54.500 1'02.700 10 Jan Solans
Rodrigo Sanjuan Citroën C3 Rally2 2:38'56.300 6'39.000 44.500 11 Jari Huttunen
Mikko Lukka Ford Fiesta Rally2 2:39'03.700 6'46.400 7.400 12 Chris Ingram
Craig Drew Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:39'04.200 6'46.900 0.500 13
Marco Bulacia
Marcelo Der Ohannesian Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:39'13.500 6'56.200 9.300 14 Sami Pajari
Enni Mälkönen Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:39'35.200 7'17.900 21.700 15 Eerik Pietarinen
Antti Linnaketo Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 2:40'11.500 7'54.200 36.300 16 Emilio Fernández
Axel Coronado Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:41'18.600 9'01.300 1'07.100 17 Mikołaj Marczyk
Szymon Gospodarczyk Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:41'29.700 9'12.400 11.100 18 Bruno Bulacia
Marc Marti Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:43'06.200 10'48.900 1'36.500 19
Martin Prokop
Michal Ernst Ford Fiesta Rally2 2:43'52.800 11'35.500 46.600 20 Freddy Loix
Pieter Tsjoen Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:44'58.200 12'40.900 1'05.400 21 Rakan Al-Rashed
Hugo Magalhaes Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 2:45'54.900 13'37.600 56.700 22 Yohan Rossel
Valentin Sarreaud Citroën C3 Rally2 2:48'43.800 16'26.500 2'48.900 23
Jourdan Serderidis
Frédéric Miclotte Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:49'04.600 16'47.300 20.800 24 Jean-Michel Raoux
Laurent Magat Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 2:49'50.800 17'33.500 46.200 25 Eduard Pons
Alberto Chamorro Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:50'43.100 18'25.800 52.300 26 Diego Jr.
Rogelio Penate Ford Fiesta Rally3 2:51'41.400 19'24.100 58.300 27 Pablo Biolghini
Stefano Pudda Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:51'49.300 19'32.000 7.900 28 Silvano Patera
Danilo Fappani Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:55'34.800 23'17.500 3'45.500 29 Jan Černý
Tomáš Střeska Ford Fiesta Rally3 2:56'14.100 23'56.800 39.300 30 Gabriele Campagnoli
Nicola Arena Ford Fiesta Rally3 2:57'45.300 25'28.000 1'31.200 31 Zoltán László
Tamás Kürti Ford Fiesta Rally3 2:58'00.400 25'43.100 15.100 32 Daniel Chwist
Kamil Heller Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 2:59'10.700 26'53.400 1'10.300 33 Luke Anear
Andrew Sarandis Ford Fiesta Rally2 3:02'43.100 30'25.800 3'32.400 34 Giuseppe Messori
Pier Paolo Škoda Fabia R5 3:05'57.400 33'40.100 3'14.300 35 Francesco Tali
Cristina Caldart Ford Fiesta Rally2 3:10'22.300 38'05.000 4'24.900 36 Timothy Van
Kurt Heyndrickx Renault Clio Rally4 3:11'11.300 38'54.000 49.000 37 Gianluca Mara
Veronica Cottu Peugeot 208 R2 3:13'14.300 40'57.000 2'03.000 38 Miguel Díaz-Aboitiz
Jordi Hereu Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 3:16'24.200 44'06.900 3'09.900 39 Gian Paolo
Angelo Tendas Peugeot 208 R2 3:24'24.900 52'07.600 8'00.700 40 Carlo Covi
Andrea Budoia Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo 3:27'07.000 54'49.700 2'42.100 41 Giacomo Spanu
Davide Spanu Ford Fiesta Rally4 3:59'17.600 1:27'00.300 32'10.600 View full results
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