Tanak’s Ford Puma initially ground to a halt after running through a water splash in sight of the finish on stage 10. The 2019 world champion lost 20 seconds as the car stalled, although he was able to engage EV mode briefly to finish the stage.
Once across the finish line the Puma suffered a complete electrical system blackout caused by water entering the car.
Tanak was sitting in sixth position and would have likely climbed to fifth had he continued as Toyota’s Elfyn Evans also lost time to damage caused in another water splash in the same stage.
Tanak attempted to fix the problem in a road section but was unable to revive the car.
“It is difficult to know [what was damaged]. We were not able to get it [the car] alive again and it was a bit of a surprise,” said Tanak.
“Clearly we got some water in the engine and we somehow did some damage to the electrical components as well. Basically we blacked out and we had no electric power.
“We didn’t have any water over the bonnet and we didn’t put the splitter in the water so everything was perfect. It seems like some other way which we got the water in and did some damage. I’m not sure if it is unlucky but it wasn’t needed.”
Tanak’s exit followed the retirement of team-mate Pierre-Louis Loubet earlier this morning after M-Sport confirmed they were unable to repair damage incurred from a crash in stage seven on Friday evening.
"It is hard. The retirement of Pierre-Louis was unexpected and difficult to get over but sometimes these things happen,” M-Sport team principal Rich Millener told Autosport.
“It is a really tricky rally and it has been shown already there is a lot going on. It just happens to be that both of our cars have had issues.
Source: Autosport