Ott Tänak fifth after Rally Chile shakedown run
Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja have posted the fifth-fastest time in the shakedown stage of the WRC Rally Chile, though front runner drivers generally focused on conserving their tires and didn't push things to the limit.
The rally is round 11 (of 13) of the 2024 series.
Tänak's teammate, Finland's Esapekka Lappi won the stage on Thursday, with a time of 3:18.2 Latvian driver Martinš Sesks (M-Sport Ford; 3:20.4) and another Sami Pajari (Finland, Toyota; 3:20.8).
Tänak's time of 3:24.0 was also bested by another Finn, reigning world champion Kalle Rovanperä, who put in a time of 3:22.1 in the Toyota Yaris.
Tänak was followed by Welshman Elfyn Evans (Toyota; 3:26.3), then teammate and table leader Thierry Neuville (Hyundai; 3:28.9), and Gregoire Munster (M-Sport Ford; 3:32.0).
Rally Chile's tracks are notorious for wearing out tires, so drivers were already conserving them during the shakedown.
Rally Chile stages proper started at 2.35 p.m. Estonian time and continue Saturday and Sunday.
Neuville tops the drivers' table going into Chile with 192 points, 34 points ahead of Tänak. Veteran driver and eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier is just four points behind Tänak.
Two races remain after Chile, in Germany and Austria in late October (Central European Rally) and in Japan a month after that.
Neuville is searching for his maiden WRC drivers' title after many seasons playing the bridesmaid; Tänak's sole title so far came in 2019, for Toyota.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Siim Boikov
