Ott Tanak believes that 2023 was the best season he could have with M-Sport Ford and it was easy for him and his team to fall as both of them had high expectations for this year.
Tanak hoped to end his partnership with M-Sport Ford in a positive way as Rally Japan was the last WRC event in which he would drive for the blue oval. He lost his fifth place over Takamoto Katsuta on Sunday as the Estonian had an overshoot on the opening stage of the final day, but at the same time the local star won nine stages during this weekend, therefore it was very difficult for Tanak to defend his position. Generally, Tanak dropped many seconds on Friday morning due to the fact that the windscreen of his Puma was completely misted up and he had to move his head around to be able to watch the road. In addition to that, his car carried an electrical issue on Friday afternoon which was related to the anti-lag and the throttle. However, he managed to put M-Sport Ford back to the top step of the podium in two events (Rally Sweden, Rally Chile) and to get another two podiums (Croatia Rally, Central European Rally) in 2023, but he was not satisfied at all with the behavior and the reliability issues of his Puma which cost him to fight for this year's title.
"We had a clean day today, no trouble and brought the car home", Tanak said.
"From our side it was the best season we could have done, we gave our best shot and we are here now.
"When you have high expectations it’s easy to have a high a fall and that is how it feels from my side and in some ways from the team side too.
"We need to proud of the two wins from this year, there were some positives to take from those".
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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