The Estonian driver did not have the dream start he hoped when he announced his rejoin at Hyundai Motorsport this season as he finished in fourth place in Monte Carlo while he crashed out from the lead of Rally Sweden after his hitting a snowbank and damaging the radiator of his i20N. At Safari Rally, he was at the top three at the end of Friday morning while he moved up to second after Esapekka Lappi's retirement in Stage 5. However, Tanak clipped a rock on the inside of a left-hander and broke the steering of his i20N, thus he was not able to continue and retired for the rest of Friday. The Hyundai mechanics did an amazing job as they managed to fix Tanak's car for Saturday, but still he dropped time in Stage 9 due to the fact that he had no intercom and could not listen to Martin Jarveoja while his i20N filled up with dust in Stage 11 as his window was falling open. Although he struggled throughout the third WRC round, he was the top driver on SuperSunday standings and the second-fastest in Powerstage which means that he scored eleven points on Sunday plus one point from his tenth place at Saturday classification.
"Obviously, I have some bigger things to worry about than the points at the moment", Tanak said.
"It seems like we really need to get our consistency back.
"Whatever happened on the Friday, there was really no other option to save it so there was no chance this time.
"In Sweden and Monte Carlo, they were clearly my mistakes which normally I shouldn’t do and haven’t done previously.
"The target here in Kenya was just have a clean run with no trouble and we managed to get through without any punctures or things, but unfortunately this one rock cost us a lot.
"We want to get back on track; the championship is very young, but we need to get back into our normal rhythm.
"It was surprisingly a good points haul considering we retired in Kenya.
"That’s the new system for you".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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