WRC Sardinia: Tanak holds commanding lead amid red flag confusion

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
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