Placing second after Tänak was Elfyn Evans (Toyota, +7.0), while current overall championship leader Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) came in third (+39.8).

Tänak had claimed three stage wins on the roads of the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. He took the lead on Sunday morning, overtaking Sebastien Ogier (Toyota) after the latter made a small driving error on stage 15 and then crashed in stage 17, forcing him to drop out of the race.

"What happened before to Seb – I mean it's always difficult to fight a friend, you know, and then something like this happens," Tänak said following the final stage of the rally on Sunday. "It's difficult to find [the] feelings."

He acknowledged that after what happened to Ogier, "because everything changed, especially in the manufacturers' championship, we really took care in this one to have a clean stage, and to bring the points home."

Hear from @OttTanak, the WRC Central European Rally 2024 winner, after crossing the finish line. ️#WRC | #HMSGOfficial | #CER2024 pic.twitter.com/AlbTpUGUWj

— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) October 20, 2024

The Central European Rally marked Tänak's second win of the season and 21st of his career.

He earned his first victory of the 2024 season in a surprise final-stage twist in Sardinia in June, after Ogier, on track to win and heading into the Wolf Power Stage with a more than 6-second lead on the Estonian driver, suffered a tire puncture just kilometers away from the finish line.

As Ogier was leading the Central European Rally as of Saturday night, his retirement Sunday cost him 18 points. These points then went to Tänak, who finished Saturday in second place.

In the overall WRC standings, Tänak remains in second place with 200 points, but Sunday's events saw him close the gap to current overall leader Thierry Neuville to just 25 points.

The biggest point haul of the Central European Rally went to Elfyn Evans, who finished second overall (15 points), took second place in Sunday's race (6 points) and posted the third-fastest time during the Wolf Power Stage (3 points). Tänak scooped up 22 points (18+4+0), as did Toyota's Takamoto Katsuta (10+7+5), while Neuville finished the rally with 18 points (13+3+2).

This year's World Rally champion will be decided with the final race of the season next month, when Rally Japan takes place from November 21-24.

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