SS18 (13.02km): Stage win went to Finland's Juho Hänninen (Toyota), who led Mikkelsen (Citroën) by 0.2 and Tänak (Ford) and Ireland's Craig Breen (Citroën) by 3.1 seconds.

Tänak remained in the overall lead, followed by Mikkelsen at 18.5 and France's Sébastien Ogier (Ford) at 31.3 seconds behind. Hänninen was in fourth, behind Tänak by 1.49.4.

SS19 (12.95km): This stage was dominated by Finnish Toyota drivers, with Esapekka Lappi (Toyota) beating out Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota) by 2.2 seconds. Mikkelsen ranked third, 2.7 seconds behind Lappi, and Tänak placed fourth, 3.2 seconds behind the Finn.

Following this stage, Tänak had an overall lead of exactly 18 seconds over Mikkelsen.

SS20 (13.02km): Breen won this stage with a 0.3-second lead over second place New Zealander Hayden Paddon (Hyundai) and 0.9-second lead over Latvala. Mikkelsen trailed four seconds and Tänak 4.9 seconds behind Breen.

Despite trailing in 9th place in this stage, Tänak maintained a 17.1-second lead over Mikkelsen in the overall ranking.

SS21 (12.95km): The power stage, in which additional points can be earned by the stage's fastest drivers, was won by Spain's Dani Sordo (Hyundai), who beat Lappi by 0.2, Latvala by 2.6, Ogier by 2.7 and Breen by 2.9 seconds. Mikkelsen finished the power stage 6.4 seconds and Tänak 7.1 seconds behind Sordo.

Thus first place in the rally went to Tänak, who led second-place Mikkelsen by 16. and third-place Ogier by 30.4 seconds.

Second Estonian to win WRC

With his first career WRC win at the Rally Italia Sardegna in June, Tänak became just the second Estonian to win a WRC title, following Markko Märtin, the last of whose five championship wins was 13 years ago.

With this additional win in Germany, Tänak has already won nearly half as many WRC titles as his predecessor.