Tänak-Järveoja win the first Rally Estonia

The air of the country benefited Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja (Hyundai). Sur leurs terres, l’équipage champion du monde en titre a remporté le tout premier Rally of Estonia organized at the global level this Sunday, September 6.

Les anciens représentants Toyota offrent à Hyundai Motorsport la seconde victoire en WRC in 2020 after the success of Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul at Monte-Carlo. Here they are relaunched in the championship!

The South Korean manufacturer managed the second stage to perfection thanks to the presence in the back curtain of Craig Breen and Paul Nagle. The Irish served as a screen against the threat embodied by Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia (Toyota).

The six-time world champions found more satisfactory settings this Sunday morning. First worried by Elfyn Evans (Toyota, 4th), the French ended up tickling third position, without climbing there.

Multiple vice-champions Thierry Neuville and Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai) are the big losers of the weekend. The Belgians do not score a single point! A torn right rear end on Saturday put an end to their hopes.

On Sunday, the points from the Power Stage constituted an achievable consolation prize but their car suffered mechanical problems from the start of the final special.

Fast, and even leaders for the first time in a WRC rally on Saturday morning, Kalle Rovanperä and Janne Halttunen (5th) fell back in the hierarchy for non-compliance with the regulations. The Finns removed the radiator blanking plate from their Toyota Yaris WRC in the start control area of ​​SS10 on Saturday. The stewards found that the plate should have been removed on the road section before the special and that an infraction of the parc ferme rules had been committed.

On the side of M-Sport Ford, le déficit en vitesse pure de la Fiesta n’a pas été rattrapée par le talent des trois pilotes. Teemu Suninen et Jarmo Lehtinen ont débordé son compatriote Esapekka Lappi et Janne Ferm après que ces derniers sont partis en tête-à-queue mais occupent la seconde moitié du top 10.

For his debut aboard the Hyundai i20 WRC, Pierre-Louis Loubet retired on Sunday morning while in 9th place with his co-driver Vincent Landais. The Corsican hit a stone in a slow turn.

More spectacular was the series of rolls by Takamoto Katsuta and Daniel Barritt (Toyota), while the Japanese driver demonstrated his progress on gravel (5th before the crash).

For the third time in 2020, Mads Ostberg and Torstein Eriksen (Citroën) won the WRC 2 category. Note the second place acquired at the last minute by Adrien fourmaux and Renaud Jamoul thanks to a puncture from Nikolay Gryazin-Konstantin Aleksandrov in the Power Stage.

However, the fastest driver aboard an R5 was the young Oliver Solberg (Volkswagen, 18 years old). The son of 2003 world champion Petter Solberg wins the WRC 3 class for the first time in his young career.

The next round of the WRC is scheduled for the rough tracks of Turkey, from September 18 to 20.

Find in AUTO issue 2277hebdo, available Monday evening digitally and Wednesday on newsstands, analysis of the Estonian Rally by our special correspondent.

Final classification of the 2020 Rally Estonia: