Tanak's incident in Stage 14 is under investigation by FIA

FIA and the organizers of Rally Latvia will have a look the strange incident which occured to Ott Tanak in Stage 14 as the Estonian and Hyundai Motorsport want explanations.

Tanak was in fourth place overall and was driving on a stage mode in SS14, but he had to stop when his i20N was covered by an advertising arch. Elfyn Evans previously touched this arch during to his effort to save his Yaris from a potential crash which led to a collapse of this arch. The marshals did not have the time to inform Tanak and Martin Jarjeoja to slow down nor to move it away from the road, thus the Estonians immediately stopped and exited their i20N in order to remove this arch and to complete the stage. Fortunately for them, the incident happened in a place where there were no trees and no blind corners, otherwise the things could have been even worst for them. He received a notional time for SS14 as well as Adrien Fourmaux and Takamoto Katsuta who had to slow down and to overtake Tanak's car in the stage. Finally, it must be mentioned that the 2019 WRC Champion was chasing Martins Sesks for the third place of Saturday classification with the view of scoring points for his WRC title bid and this incident impeded his efforts which means that he claimed ten instead of 13 points.

"Following the incident involving Car 8 on Special Stage 14, a thorough review by the FIA is ongoing", a statement said. 

"The driver, Ott Tanak and team representative met with the FIA representatives on site to review the situation, which all agree was potentially dangerous.

"Discussing the situation, Tanak agreed that his comments following the stage were not in the best interest of the sport, but that they were made in the moments immediately following the incident. 

"He apologised for his comments about Rally Control but welcomed the upcoming review.

"Hyundai Motorsport, the organiser and the FIA are collaborating to better understand the incident and to work together towards the continuous improvement of the safety systems in the sport, which is a critical goal of the FIA".

Source: Motorsport.com

Photo Credits: Hyundai