Ott Tänak wins and convinces at the Otepää Talveralli Rally

Hyundai Motorsport has contested, with two cars, the Otepää Talveralli Rally, the first round of the Estonian Mixed Rally Championship. Ott Tänak, with Martin Järveoja, and Thierry Neuville, with Martijn Wydaeghe, are seizing the opportunity to ride for the Arctic Rally Finland.

The second round of the World Rally Championship will share the weather conditions with this weekend’s rally. Therefore, the Korean brand has chosen this rally, in addition to the tests, to arrive as prepared as possible. Craig Breen hasn`t participated, but he has added several kilometers of tests.

The rally has just come to an end. Tänak and Järveoja were victorious, scoring all eight scratches in play during the race. The differences with Neuville and Wydaeghe have not been excessively high, but sufficient to control the rally, with 83.94 timed kilometers. The final difference was 33.4 seconds.

The Belgian couple, meanwhile, have increased their pace in the final part of the rally. In the first stages, the differences were between three and six seconds. The mark has been reduced in the last stages, around the second, in sections close to ten kilometers in length -except for the TC-8-.

Locals Georg Gross and Raigo Mõlder have been the “first of the rest”. Gross, a five-time Estonian Rally Champion, finished third in a Ford Fiesta WRC. Specifically, with the unit used by Mads Ostberg in the World Championship in 2017 and 2018, now owned by OT Racing. The difference with the leader has been more than two minutes.

Egon Kaur (Volkswagen Polo R5) and Georg Linnamäe, aboard a similar unit, finished fourth and fifth respectively, a few differences close to the final podium.