Tanak delivered a masterclass in speed and tyre management to score his and the British team's second win of 2023.
The 2019 world champion won seven of the 16 tricky gravel stages to complete the rally with a 42.1-second margin over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who snatched second after late drama struck team-mate Teemu Suninen.
Tanak led after winning Friday’s opening stage before briefly dropping to third after ceding 7s to a spin in stage two. He was also hampered by a loss of hybrid boost from a heavy landing after a jump.
However, two stage wins on Friday afternoon propelled Tanak’s Ford Puma into a 4.2s lead over Suninen and, once in front, Tanak never looked back.
The key to victory was an inspired tyre strategy call to take four hard compound Pirellis ahead of Saturday’s much more abrasive gravel stages.
Tanak posted fastest times on four of the day’s six stages as tyre management became paramount.
The Estonian’s lead ballooned to 58.3s with approximately 40s of that advantage arriving in stage nine, the longest of the rally at 28.72km.
Tanak was the only driver to run four hard tyres, with the Hyundai drivers running a mix of hard and soft, while Toyota’s trio of Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanpera and Takamoto Katsuta were reduced to a crawl having incorrectly opted for softs.
Having mastered the art of tyre saving, Tanak was able to cruise through Sunday’s four stages to claim his first win since Sweden in February, ending a difficult run for the M-Sport team that has been plagued by misfortune.
Toyota’s tyre strategy error put Hyundai’s Suninen and Neuville into a fight for the remaining podium places, with title contender Evans hoping to recover from losing almost a minute on stage nine after running his softs into the ground.
Source: Autosport