Rally Italia Sardegna: Day 3Tänak and TOYOTA GAZOO Racing hit the front with a clean sweep

Quotes:
Tommi Mäkinen (Team Principal)

“Ott did an absolutely great job today. Winning every stage and building his lead in this way: it was very impressive. He was up against some strong and consistent drivers and in some tough conditions, but he has a lot of confidence at the moment and seems very comfortable to push with the car. Now we just need him to bring it home tomorrow and I’m sure he can do it. As for Kris, it’s frustrating what happened to him in the final stage: It was good to see him building in speed as he gained more confidence on these stages. For Jari-Matti, it was important that he was back in the car today and I think his times were good considering he was first on the road.”

Ott Tänak (Driver car 8)

“We’ve had a very strong day, but it was really demanding. We had to fight hard to get into the lead and make the gap that we have now. This morning we had a very good tyre call, and I believe that gave us some advantage. The car was working well and I had the confidence to push. This afternoon the conditions were rough and it was hot in the car. It was tough to push while also managing the tyres, and it would have been easy to get a puncture. But we had a very clean run with a good rhythm. We’re in a great position but we still have a big job to do tomorrow with four tricky stages waiting for us.”

Jari-Matti Latvala (Driver car 10)

“The goal for today was to enjoy the driving, but it’s never easy to be first on the road. This morning was very good, I was actually very happy with the stage times for the road position that we had. The afternoon we tried something different with the setup and to have the car a bit stiffer, but it didn’t work for my driving style: I couldn’t feel the grip in the same way, so the times were not that great. But when I didn't have that confidence I knew to stay calm and not make mistakes. Tomorrow we’ll go back to the setup we had this morning with some fine tuning, and hopefully we can get some points from the Power Stage.”

Kris Meeke (Driver car 5)

“This morning I had a decent rhythm but I was still hesitating a bit in places, as it had been four years since I’d last driven these stages. Still, we managed to maintain the gap to the two drivers in front of us even though they had an advantage with the road cleaning. This afternoon I improved my rhythm and the first two stages went really well. Then in a fast section we had an impact with something in the middle of the road and it damaged a rim. I always knew this rally would be one of my toughest of the year, so to have been fighting for fourth tomorrow would have been really nice, so it’s really disappointing. Now we just need to bring home some points tomorrow.”

What's next?

The final day of the rally is made up of two stages each run twice to the north of Alghero, with a combined competitive distance of 41.9 kilometres. The two tests are identical to how they were run on the final day of the 2018 event.

Key stage: Sassari-Argentiera (SS17 & SS19, 6.89 kilometres)

Martin Järveoja (Co-driver car 8):“The Power Stage is the shortest full stage of the rally but it’s a very tricky stage to finish with. It’s mostly downhill, pretty narrow and technical, although the last part along the beach is quite fast.”