Abiteboul lists three reasons behind Hyundai's decision on Tanak's withdrawal

The team principal of Hyundai Motorsport, Cyril Abiteboul, explains the reasons why Hyundai decided to retire Ott Tanak's car in Poland on Saturday afternoon saying that they wanted to focus more on Sunday.

Tanak and Martin Jarveoja restarted on Saturday morning under the SuperRally regulations following their retirement on Friday morning due to a collision with a deer in Stage 2. As they have been given time penalties for their restart and had to open the stages on Saturday, it was not possible to take some places back considering the fact that they were one hour behind the frontrunners on that day, thus Hyundai confirmed their retirement at the end of Stage 12 where Tanak reported an engine issue as well. However, it must be mentioned that Tanak's restart on Saturday helped Thierry Neuville in the morning as one more car makes a difference on sweeping the road compared to the second loop where the lines have already been created from the first loop. Tanak and Jarveoja started the final day of Rally Poland in a positive way, as they won the first two stages of Sunday, and eventually scored eleven points which came from their first place on SuperSunday standings and from setting the second-fastest time in Powerstage.

"The thinking is that with the current regulation of the super rally and we were so far behind that there was absolutely nothing to gain", Abiteboul said.

"We started Ott in the morning because we wanted to do a proper shakedown of the car after the repair.

"We also wanted to give a bit of relief to Thierry by having an extra car doing a bit of cleaning in the morning when it mattered, but in the afternoon obviously the benefits are lower, and it was very clear that, you know, nothing would be happening that would really help Ott in the championship or in or in the starting order for Sunday.

"So, when that is the case, we prefer to get the crew to recover a bit and focus on the preparation for Sunday, because that has to be for him the biggest charge".

Source: Motorsport.com

Photo Credits: Hyundai