Jyväskylä (Finland) (AFP)
Estonian coach Ött Tänak (Toyota) won the Rally Finland on Sunday, bolstering his lead at the WRC world championship with immediate contenders Sébastien Ogier (Citroën) and Thierry Neuville (Hyundai).
Tänak finished at the end of the four days of the race the Finns Esapekka Lappi (Citroën) and Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota).
The icing on the cake, he also won the ultimate special stage, the "power stage", garnering 5 extra points in the championship. This is the fourth victory this year in the WRC for the Estonian who had already won the Rally Finland last year.
"I feel very happy, it was a very good weekend," said Tänak, 31, surrounded by a forest of supporters and Estonian flags, a country neighboring Finland.
He had experienced a mechanical failure in the last kilometers of the previous rally in Sardinia depriving him of a victory almost gained. "I was really shattered after Sardinia but today we had the perfect result, we need five more like that," he said, referring to the number of events remaining before the end. of the championship.
He now has 180 points in the provisional ranking, for 158 six-time world champion Sebastien Ogier and 155 Thierry Neuville.
The next round of the championship is the Rally of Germany from August 22-25.
© 2019 AFP