Ött Tänak (Hyundai) won the Ypres Rally, 9th of the 13 WRC world championship events on Sunday. Coming off the road on Saturday, Thierry Neuville dropped one place (4th) in the world championship.
Tänak won his second consecutive rally after his success in Finland and the third of the year with Sardinia. He beat the Welshman Elfyn Evans (Toyota Yaris) by 5 seconds at the end of the 20th and last special, the Power Stage, won by the Finnish Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota Yaris) who scored 5 more points in the world championship.
Finland’s Esapekka Lappi (Toytoa Yaris) is 3rd at 1:41.6. Rovanperä was off the road on day one in SS 2 on Friday. Neuville (Hyundai) suffered the same fate on Saturday, as did Irishman Craig Breen (Ford Puma).
These pilots were able to get back on the road but with a big penalty. Neuville took 3rd place (3 points) in SS20, the Power Stage, with “transmission problems I lost time. But the car was good and we're going in the right direction, let’s be positive. Too bad the result does not follow, for the team and the supporters”, confided the Belgian driver.
In the drivers’ classification, Rovanperä will have to wait a little longer to become the youngest world rally champion. He has 203 points for 131 for Tänak who consolidates his 2nd place ahead of Evans (116) and Neuville now 4th (106).
The next meeting is scheduled for September 8 to 11 in Greece with the Acropolis Rally.
