Martin Holmes: The key moment in Poland … before the final day!!

Veteran rally manager Malcolm Wilson said: “I can’t remember the last time all three of the rally leading drivers had issues on the same stage!”   

M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson.And each of them were in different makes of car!  

First of all third placed Jari-Matti Latvala’s Toyota stopped, pulling off the stage and out of the event with a transmission problem.  

Then it appeared the leader, Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville, who had been was lying 3.0 seconds ahead of Tanak, was driving most of the stage with a rear left puncture which cost him over 20 seconds.  

The final drama was when the leading Ford driver, Ott Tanak, was driving having completely lost all his rear wing, on a straight stretch of road, just as Mads Ostberg’s car had done earlier in the year in Sweden.  

Tanak lost around five seconds on this stage, but because of Neuville’s puncture, Tanak was in the lead by 14 seconds.  

The prospect of two orthodox stages and a final run round the super special to go before a new wing could be fitted meant it was inevitable his moments in the lead were numbered ...
 
- Martin Holmes  

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