DMACK World Rally Team once again showed great pace at Rally Finland 2016.
Ott Tänak and co-driver Raigo Mõlder put the heartbreak of Rally Poland aside to set for the second-consecutive event some stage-topping times.
Tänak and Mõlder for the second rally in a row were in contention for the lead of Rally Finland. The Estonians were no more than +1.4 seconds off the leaders in the Citroen DS 3 Kris Meeke/Paul Nagle.
However, their bid at Rally Finland glory was thwarted as they dropped time with a broken suspension after a broken suspension and a puncture.
Tänak and Mõlder were determined to go up the leaderboard after setting some table-topping leaderboard times. As they were on course for a podium finish, a collision with a stone forced the Estonians to retire from Rally Finland.
In WRC2, fellow Estonians Karl Kruuda and Martin Järveoja failed to finish Rally Finland after hitting problems on Sunday after damaging their Ford Fiesta R5. Their team-mates, current Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy Champions Marius Aasen and Veronica Engan finished fourth.
Tänak said post-Rally Finland “Once again we’ve shown top pace and been able to set top times on the fastest event of the season. But a few problems have stopped us from challenging for the victory, even though we pushed to the maximum all weekend. We had prepared really well for this rally and put in so much work beforehand.”
Krudda reflected on his weekend in Finland “It wasn’t the final result we were after but our pace has improved steadily over the last three events. We had been pushing pretty hard here and the speed at the front really was fast. Finland is one of those special events and it really was an enjoyable weekend here.”
Aasen added “After the accident in Poland it was important for us to get a strong finish here. We improved our pace over the weekend and never made any mistakes and I was really having a nice enjoyable event. We made a few changes with the car and everything worked pretty well during the event.”
