Ott Tanak states that he will not quit from the 2021 title fight and he will do his best in the remaining rounds of WRC chaiming that the win of driver's championship is more important that the win of Rally Estonia.
The Estonian driver was forced to retire from Rally Portugal and Rally Sardinia due to suspension damage and he lost two certain victories there as he had a comfortable lead in these two events.
At Rally Estonia, he was leading at the end of Stage 2 and he fought with Kalle Rovanpera for the first position on Friday morning.
However, he lost 26,6 seconds on Stage 3 as he had a front rear puncture and a front rear bumper damage and as a result of that he dropped from first to seventh position.
But on the exactly next one stage he ran wide and he ended up off the road in the grass and after that incident he pulled over his i20 as he had a double front puncture and a problem with the radiator where his car was overheated.
"I’m not giving up on this championship", Tanak told DirtFish.
"For the next events, I go and do my best.
"I know it doesn’t look good and, for me, it’s really difficult, but for the team we need to keep pushing.
"If you are doing this kind of championship, it doesn’t matter if the rally is here or there – the pressure is there if you need to protect a championship lead or something.
"OK, here I have some more knowledge of the roads, but it doesn’t give more pressure to compete at home.
"Winning Estonia is not important, winning the championship is important.
"Definitely the retirements in Sardinia and Portugal they hurt a lot there, this was – as well – my own mistakes and it’s nothing to hurt about".
Finally, he expained the reason why he kept pushing at Rally Estonia after his retirement on Friday: "It’s boring to go slow.
"And anyway, we can learn.
"Especially on Sunday morning we were looking for something that would work on the first loop in the loose and I would say, in the end, as were starting first and winning some stages, I would say we found something.
"For sure that was still good learning and it was important to keep focused on this topic, to keep learning".
Source: DirtFish.com
Photo Credits: Hyundai
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