Ott Tänak forced to retire

« Beautiful morning ". At the finish of the first special of the day, Ott Tänak said ironically after finishing on three wheels due to a puncture. Already dropped in the general, the Estonian had to get back on his feet to hope to grab a third place at best.

Unfortunately, the situation did not improve during SS9 (Saint-Clément – ​​Freissinières), on the contrary. On the snowy and icy roads of the second special of the day, Ott Tânak suffered another puncture. No longer having a spare wheel, he somehow reached the finish line more than 8 minutes behind the leading group.

Finally, all his Saturday morning misadventures forced him to give up following the Rally Monte Carlo 2021. “ After two punctures this morning, Ott Tânak was forced to retire because he only had a spare wheel, écrit Hyundai on his Twitter account. Due to the regulations, it is not possible to resume the race on Sunday ».

 UPDATE after SS10: After having two punctures on SS9 and S10 this morning @OttTanak was forced to withdraw from #RallyMonteCarlo as he was only carrying one spare wheel. No restart possible on Sunday due to event rules. #HMSGOfficial

— hmsgofficial (@HMSGOfficial) January 23, 2021

Fourteenth overall, 9'46"7 behind the leader Sébastien Ogier, Ott Tänak will not finish the Monte-Carlo for the second year in a row.

After Teemu Suninen on Friday, Ott Tänak is the second driver to retire from WRC1.