Home hero Ott Tanak has retired from Rally Estonia on the opening day of action after an eventful day which saw the Hyundai driver crash into a ditch.
Tanak had been the early leader on Friday, but lost his advantage when he suffered a puncture which caused the tyre to delaminate and damaged the bodywork on his i20 at the halfway mark of the second stage.
Tanak would recover to the finish having dropped to seventh to carry out repairs. However on fourth stage things went from bad to worse as he ran wide into a ditch, just over 7km into the stage.
The 2019 world champion then rejoined the road, only to later pull off with damage to his radiator. Tanak called it a day, unable to complete the stage.
“Ott Tanak forced to retire from the day at Rally Estonia,” confirmed his Hyundai team. “The team will recover the car and bring it back to service.”
It’s hoped Tanak can rejoin the event on Saturday under the restart rules.
Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera currently leads Rally Estonia by 2.5s over Tanak’s team-mate, Craig Breen.
