After leaving the Hyundai fold and returning to M-Sport, Tanak heads into Rally Estonia sitting tied for third in the championship standings, 42 points adrift of Toyota’s defending champion Kalle Rovanpera.
The 2019 world champion has shown flashes of pace since winning February's Rally Sweden but has ultimately been unable to score a podium since finishing second to Toyota’s Elfyn Evans in Croatia back in April.
Heading into the first fast gravel round of the season, M-Sport has opted for an “intense” build up to the event beginning with a pre-event test, followed by Tanak completing the Louna-Eesti gravel rally in Estonia. The Ford was victorious in the rally as Tanak won all nine stages to beat Hyundai WRC rival Teemu Suninen by 38s.
Tanak says head the team are “putting everything in" to close the gap to his rivals as the championship enters the second half of the campaign.
“We've had some quite intense preparations; we did a pre-event test and then a small event, so it's been a big effort to make it as good as possible for Estonia,” said Tanak.
“Obviously, the next two events are purely about performance, so we're putting everything into it and we'll find out how close we get to the others.
“Now we are going into the second half of the season we're definitely not letting the championship go, so we feel like we need to increase our game and put everything in.
“It's going to be a short turnaround to Finland, so if something isn't quite working in Estonia the week in between will be flat out, but hopefully in Estonia we will be on a good level already.”
Source: Autosport