Rally Sardinia - 3rd Day - 2nd Loop: Tanak's dominance continues as Evans retires again

At the end of the third day of Rally Italia Sardegna, Ott Tanak has a comfortable lead over Craig Breen and Dani Sordo who are following him.

Ott Tanak extended his advantage over his rivals as he was the fastest driver in all stages of this afternoon loop, but he had to drive on road mode in Stage 17 as he received a red-flag message to his dashboard. He was given a notional time by the stewards.

Craig Breen remains second overall and faced a problem with his Puma which did not reveal it to the journalists and managed to fix it. However, he had to slow down in Stage 17 when a marshall mistakenly showed to him a red flag.

Dani Sordo completes the top three and lost ground in his battle with Breen as the first one did two mistakes. First of all, the back end of his i20N slid out on a downhill left-hander in Stage 15 while he stalled the car in the watersplash in Stage 16. Finally, the stewards gave to Sordo a notional time for Stage 17 as it was interrupted after Fourmaux's car blocked the road.

Pierre-Louis Loubet is still in fourth position and had a half spin in Stage 17 while his gap from Breen and Sordo was increased further due to the fact that he was slower than them.

Kalle Rovanpera climbed to fifth position after Adrien Fourmaux's crash in Stage 17.

Takamoto Katsuta is sixth overall despite the fact that he dropped many seconds in this loop. More specifically, he lost 11 seconds in Stage 14 as there was a front end damage to his Yaris while his radiator was damaged after the watersplash in SS14 meaning that he had to drive slowly in the next three stages.

Gus Greensmith could not catch Katsuta on the overall classification after the last one's issues, therefore the M-Sport driver is seventh.

Elfyn Evans was forced to retire on the penultimate stage of the loop as he got a problem with the rear suspension and parked his Yaris into an access road.

Adrien Fourmaux had to retire in Stage 17 as he ran wide on a left-hander and clipped some bushes. The Stage 17 was red flagged, but it must be mentioned that Fourmaux was fifth position overall before his crash.

Watch below the stage times:

Watch below the overall classification after SS17:

Photo Credits: Hyundai