By: RACER Staff 15 hours ago Ott Tanak notched up a hat-trick of wins for the first time in the FIA World Rally Championship since 2016 when he claimed victory in Rally Turkey, the 10th round of the series. In doing so, the Estonian catapulted himself into second in the championship, sandwiching leader Thierry Neuville and third-placed Sebastien Ogier.Jari-Matti Latvala and Miikka Anttila finished second, securing Toyota’s first one-two this year, and Hayden Paddon and Sebastian Marshall upheld honors for Hyundai by taking the final podium position.After one of toughest events in recent history and a unique challenge on the WRC calendar, the drivers’ championship takes on a different complexion. Neuville may still head the points but, after only picking up maximum points in the Power Stage, he is now being chased down by Tanak who is 13 points adrift in second. Similarly, Ogier only picked up points for second in the Power Stage and has dropped to third, trailing Tanak by 10 points. Toyota Gazoo Racing’s one-two also enabled the squad to leap into the lead in the manufacturers’ championship and it now heads Hyundai by just five points.

Today’s route was by far the shortest and took in just four stages and 35 competitive kilometers and, after two of the most grueling days of rallying, virtually all the crews drove tactically to the finish. Tanak took no risks and remained focused on maintaining a safe pace as he was never going to be challenged by Latvala, such are the high stakes in the championship. The Finn’s second position is also his best of the year. Paddon has played the long game throughout the event and looking after the car paid dividends with a podium finish as many of the championship competitors fell by the wayside.Behind the leading trio, Teemu Suninen drove a measured event, showing pace and delivering a solid performance; he finished as the lead Fiesta WRC driver after both Ogier and Elfyn Evans dropped back earlier in the event. Andreas Mikkelsen finished fifth, another driver to lose time over the weekend and he headed sixth-placed Henning Solberg, the popular Norwegian back for a one-off event in a Skoda Fabia R5.

Jan Kopecky once again ran into problems but the Czech driver powered back up the leaderboard to take the FIA WRC 2 Championship win and seventh overall. This is his fifth win from five outings this season. He finished over a minute ahead of Simone Tempestini with Chris Ingram third in the category.Ogier rounded out the top 10 with teammate Evans 12th. Championship leader Neuville eventually climbed to 16th; he saved his tires throughout the day for an all-out assault in the Power Stage.The FIA Junior WRC Championship also came to a thrilling climax on its final round in Turkey and Emil Bergkvist not only won the event but took the series title in his Fiesta R2. The Swede wins one of the biggest prizes in world rallying; ownership of a Fiesta R5 and a free entry into next year’s FIA WRC 2 Championship.

The 11th round of the FIA World Rally Championship takes the crews to Wales Rally GB on October 4-7 for another popular gravel encounter.

By: RACER Staff | September 15, 2018 10:45 AM Ott Tanak became the fourth different Rally Turkey leader after a day of carnage that saw main championship contenders Thierry Neuville and Sebastien Ogier dramatically retire from the event within hours of one another. No fewer than five crews were forced out on Saturday and, should Tanak win on Sunday afternoon, the Estonian will have put himself firmly in contention for a shot at the title with a hat-trick of wins.Toyota teammate Jari-Matti Latvala is just 13.1 seconds adrift in second and unlikely to challenge for victory, such are the high stakes for Tanak. Hayden Paddon has moved into the final podium position, albeit over a minute adrift of the lead.The second full day of competition took the crews out to the west of Marmaris for two identical loops of three stages, packing in 130 kilometers of competition. Conditions were actually less rough today, making the rate of attrition surprising.Neuville started the day at the head of the leaderboard but in the first long stage one of the front dampers punched its way through the hood, forcing the Belgian to limp through the stage, losing him over three minutes in the process. The crew worked tirelessly to make temporary repairs on the road section but it never appeared realistic to be able to get through the following two stages with no left-front suspension.Adding to his gut-wrenching retirement, Ogier set the fastest time in the stage to take the lead but, just one stage later, the five-time FIA World Rally Champion broke a suspension arm. While he dropped less than 20 seconds in the stage and maintained a much-reduced lead, work on the road section to replace the broken suspension saw him arrive late to the start of the following stage, incurring him a one-minute penalty which dropped him to fourth. Remarkably, he was then fastest in the next stage to arrive at the mid-leg service 46.1 seconds off the lead. However, in the first stage of the afternoon, the Frenchman went off the road, handing the lead to Tanak in the process. Both Neuville and Ogier look set to rejoin under Rally 2 regulations tomorrow, the fight for critical Power Stage points their sole focus.Tanak admitted to not being the fastest driver on the rally, but pre-event all the crews predicted it would be an event driven with the head not the foot. The Estonian started the day fifth and, with the carnage around him, quietly drove to second position by the mid-leg service, despite a steering column issue. This afternoon he had a concern with a rear damper but took the lead from Andreas Mikkelsen in the first of the repeated stages when the Norwegian had a front differential problem that saw him spin, stall and have to continue on with rear-wheel drive only. He dropped to fourth over a minute adrift of the lead, picked up road penalties for lateness to the next stage and overnights fifth, now six and a half minutes behind.Latvala has moved from fourth last night to second; he had a problem with the engine stalling in hairpins, a puncture and hydraulic pressure issue. However, he overcame all of it to set fastest time in the penultimate stage of the day to overnight one-two for Toyota. Hayden Paddon has tried to drive cleanly all event and it has rewarded the Kiwi with third position, now the lead Hyundai driver. Teemu Suninen is fourth for M-Sport, the young Finn always wanting more from himself but admitting he would be happy with the result at the end of the rally.Behind fifth-placed Mikkelsen, popular privateer and WRC returnee Henning Solberg is sixth in a Skoda Fabia R5, such has been the rate of attrition today. He heads Elfyn Evans, who was forced to undertake his own mid-day service, such was the amount of work being done on Ogier’s car.Jan Kopecky is eighth overall and also heads the FIA WRC 2 Championship. He has recovered from yesterday’s time loss with punctures and now heads ninth-placed Simone Tempestini by 44.5 seconds in the category. Should the Czech Škoda driver take the win, it will be a remarkable fifth win from five events. The FIA Junior WRC Championship is now being led by Emil Bergkvist after Germany’s Julius Tannert rolled out of the lead.It was just not just Neuville and Ogier who hit problems today. Mads Ostberg was forced out in the first stage with a turbo problem and Esapekka Lappi went off the road in SS10. The car was undamaged but immovable and bizarrely, after 20 minutes of being beached on the edge of the road, it then slipped forward down the hill on its own, damaging the front end and making it possible he will not restart tomorrow.Craig Breen suffered more disappointment today when smoke started pouring into the car. Despite stopping several times to check there was no fire, he reached the end of the stage only for the car to burst into flames, totally destroying it. Both Craig and co-driver Scott Martin were not injured.Just 35 competitive kilometers remain on Sunday but, with the conditions the way they have been on one of the toughest events in years, anything could still happen.