Ott Tänak ahead of Acropolis Rally Greece: We want to keep title race alive
After crashing out in fairly spectacular style in the last round in Finland in early August, Ott Tänak has said that while the roads at the upcoming rally in Greece are tough too, they are enjoyable.
Tänak and his co-driver Martin Järveoja suffered a severe impact in the Hyundai i20 at Rally Finland, hitting a tree after rolling, and resulting in Järveoja being hospitalized for checks.
The pair have now fully recovered from that incident and are aiming to score more points at the WRC EKO Rally Acropolis Greece.
Tänak said: "The Acropolis Rally stage profile is nice. The roads are wider than they are in Portugal and Sardinia, and the surface is rougher and slower, of a kind of conditions in which our car has performed well in the past."
"It is a rally which you can enjoy as a driver, but the gravel renders it quite challenging. The car needs to be well-tuned to get into a rhythm and feel comfortable," he went on.
With four rounds remaining in the season including Greece, Tänak and Järveoja have built up 137 points, placing them third in the overall standings.
Veteran driver and eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier (Toyota) also lies just four points behind, while the Estonians' teammate Thierry Neuville leads the championship with 168 points.
For long ever the bridesmaid, the Belgian will be hungry to finally bag his first ever WRC title.
"Martin and I certainly want to deliver a strong result for the team and to stay in the title fight," Tänak said of the title race.
Along with Tänak and Neuville, Hyundai are also entering Dani Sordo (Spain), who has already competed in two events this season, for the Acropolis rally.
Hyundai may have consulted the augurs, as the same lineup took a 1-2-3 clean sweep in Greece two years ago.
Toyota will be represented by Ogier, Elfyn Evans, and Takamoto Katsuta, and M-Sport is running Adrien Fourmaux, Gregoire Munster, and privateer Jourdan Serderidis.
No other teams have competed in the top tier WRC category since Citroen pulled out several years ago.
The WRC EKO Acropolis Rally Greece kicks off next Thursday, September 5, with the traditional shakedown stage.
The race proper begins Friday morning, and, again as usual, finishes on Sunday afternoon – a total of 15 stages covering 305.3 kilometers are to be raced.
The remaining three races of the season are: Rally Chile, the Central European Rally (in Bavaria this year) and Rally Japan, in late September, late October and late November respectively.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Kristjan Kallaste
