After three years of domination by Frenchman Sebastien Ogier and Volkswagen, the 2016 World Rally Championship has taken some incredibly dramatic twists and turns. Heartbreaking last-minute failures have foiled many solid rally weekends and the strong performance lately of Hyundai has suggested that Volkswagen might have their hands full in the future. On paper, Ogier looks headed for a fourth consecutive title, but last weekend’s Rally Poland proved to be a merciless one for Estonian driver Ott Tanak.
Tanak had never won a top-level WRC event coming into the weekend, but he’d shown strongly in Poland in 2015 with a third-place finish. He took the rally lead from Andreas Mikkelsen on Stage 9 and pulled out more than 20 seconds headed into the final four stages on Sunday to the delight of the gathered Tanak fans in Poland. On the brink of his first win on ever-deteriorating Polish back roads, Tanak suffered a punctured tire that required replacing. Mikkelsen made up the difference to pick up only his second career WRC win while a devastated Tanak settled for second. While that’s Tanak’s best-ever finish in the series, it’s little consolation, but he’ll be biding his time until returning to Poland in 2017.
After two horrendous weekends in the prior two events, Kiwi driver Hayden Paddon put his Hyundai I20 in third place for the weekend, holding off his teammate Thierry Neuville.
The final day of the rally also saw Citroen driver Stephane Lefebvre showing why everyone should love rally. After absolutely annihilating his rally machine in a crash, he limped it back to the Service Area with basically the entire rear axle falling off. No bother, they patched it up and he finished the rally. Enjoy that video and a bonus of Rally Poland winner Mikkelsen launching his Volkswagen Polo over a massive jump.
