Tänak crowned in Catalonia, Neuville winner

Ott Tänak breaks the French series started since 2004 with Sébastien Loeb et Sébastien Ogier by becoming the first non-French world champion in WRC. The Estonian secured enough points to bag the title in the Rally of Catalonia (Spain), penultimate round of the calendar.

The pilot Toyota also prevented Hyundai to win the double by taking 2nd place from Dani Sordo for a 4 tenths lead. The new champion took the scratch in the Power Stage with a good lead over Elfyn Evans (M-Sport), Thierry Neuville, Dani Sordo and Sébastien Ogier.

Still struggling with his Hyundai, Sébastien Loeb was able to maintain his 4th place for a little over 6 seconds ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota). M-Sport drivers Elfyn Evans and Teemu Suninen follow ahead of Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) who saw his hopes dashed with his power steering problems that occurred in SS2. The Finn in a Ford Fiesta WRC suffered a serious scare when he hit an embankment in the Power Stage but managed to get going again at a strong pace.

@TeemuSuninenRac in the Wolf Power Stage…
Tune in on https://t.co/twccZ0hRvh and watch @RallyRACC live!#WRC #WRCLive #RallyRACC pic.twitter.com/oqDynIe0vw

- World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) October 27, 2019

Citroën will console itself with victory in the lower categories. Mads Ostberg won ahead of the Skodas of Jan Kopecky and Kalle Rovanperä who still offered the Manufacturers' title to Skoda. The Norwegian retained the advantage over the C3 R5 of Éric Camilli, winner in WRC 2.

Hyundai has regained some air in the Manufacturers' championship by having an 18-point lead over Toyota before the Rally Australia held on the weekend of November 17.

Discover the analysis of the Rally of Catalonia carried out by our special correspondent in issue 2240 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.