An M-Sport Ford press release quoted Tänak as saying that: "Preparation has been quite intense; we carried out a pre-rally test and then also a small rally itself (last week's South Estonia Rally-ed.), so this has been a major effort to get as good a result as possible in Estonia."

"Naturally, over the next two rallies, speed only will matter, so we will lay all our cards on that and then see how close we get to the others," he went on.

"We are now into the second half of the season, and we will certainly not be giving up in terms of the championship stakes," he added. "We feel we need to up the ante, and go for broke."

M-Sport's boss, Richard Millener, said the Estonian rally, which also takes place in South Estonia, is very different in character than the previous stage in Kenya. "This is one of the quickest rallies of the season and one of the most important for us this year, and Ott's home rally. We know that we will get great support from the Estonians, throughout the weekend," Millener said.

"It would be fantastic to see Ott perform well at home, and of course that is also our goal for this rally," Millener added.

"Estonia is such a beautiful and fantastic country - I can't wait to go there again." he said.

Tänak pulled off a spectacular victory in stage two in Sweden, heading off the bigger-budget Toyota and Hyundai works teams. Other highlights include a fourth place in Croatia, an event tinged with sadness following the tragic death of Irish driver Craig Breen.

Currently, the Estonian occupies fourth place in the WRC driver's table.

Rally Estonia starts on Thursday, July 20, and runs to Sunday, July 23 inclusive.

There are five more stages to go after that, in the 2023 season, as follows:

August 3-6, Rally Finland.

September 7-10, Acropolis Rally Greece.

September 28-October 1, Rally Chile.

October 26-29, Central European Rally.

November 16-19, Rally Japan.

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