The 2020 WRC season has finally returned from a long hiatus, one prompted by the Covid-19 outbreak, that began in Rally Mexico last March. During the six-month suspension to the season, the FIA explored many ways for resuming the season in these trying times. The introduction of Rally Estonia―which was originally scheduled for 2022―to this season is one way in which the organization’s efforts were realized.
In addition to Rally Estonia, the remaining calendar to the 2020 season underwent several changes. Originally, the season was scheduled with thirteen rounds that included new rallies in New Zealand, Kenya, and Japan, but the pandemic naturally changed all that. Rally Argentina, originally scheduled four April, was canceled. European regional rallies like Rally Portugal and Rally Italy inevitably faced cancellations as well. Rallies in Kenya, Finland, and Japan were subsequently canceled. Then Germany and the UK followed suit. But to the great joy of WRC fans, Estonia and Belgium came in as partial replacements for the canceled rallies. The updated schedule now appears as follows:
After Rally Estonia, the subsequent rounds occur in Turkey, Italy, and Belgium, respectively.
After these hectic, inevitable adjustments to the schedule, the shortened 2020 season now includes only 7 rounds in total. And yet, the 2020 Rally Estonia abounded with hope―symbolizing, in a sense, humanity's spiritual perseverance against the pandemic. The race must go on, as the adage goes.
Estonia became the 33rd country to host a championship WRC rally.
With its inclusion to the 2020 schedule, two years earlier than the original plan, Estonia became the 33rd country to host a championship-level WRC rally. But despite its late addition, the country is already renowned in the racing scene as the home country of the brilliant Ott Tanak, who joined the Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team (hereafter the Hyundai Team) to complete its powerhouse roster this year.
Rally Estonia occurs on high-speed gravel (unpaved) courses with intermittent high jumps.
Rally Estonia was hosted in the country’s southern city of Tartu. The course there, comparable to one in Rally Finland, is mainly composed of gravel roads that demand extreme speed, with intermittent high jumps adding to the difficulty. With most entrants to the competition lacking prior experience in the course environment, the rally car performance was expected to sway the result quite a bit. By far the most noteworthy characteristic of the rally is just how fast it is: the average speed for last year’s WRC event rally at Estonia had the average stage speed of 120.3 km/h, which ranks among the 20 highest records in WRC history.
Tanak’s co-driver Martin Jarveoja inspects the race car during the rally shakedown.
There were several regional rallies held before this year’s Rally Estonia, which allowed the racers to gain some experience of the Estonian tracks. Viru Rally, held last July in the northern part of the country, was the first of such rallies. In this 7-stage race, riding a race car for the first time in four months since Rally Mexico, Ott Tanak crushed the competition, recording, in the end, an amazing 1:43 difference to the second-place racer.
Following Viru, Louna-Eesti Ralli was held in late August, serving in effect as a warm-up race to Rally Estonia. Many WRC racers, including Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville as well as several others from the Toyota Team and the Ford Team, came to Louna-Eesti in preparation for the upcoming WRC rally. In this star-studded competition, Ott Tanak took 7 stages out of 8 and was crowned champion. As if to prove his Estonian pride, Tanak outshined his competitors from the Toyota Team, Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera. The prospects for the upcoming WRC rally appeared bright.
Craig Breen gathers his composure before the start of the 2020 Rally Estonia.
Leading up to the rally, the driver championship picture for the 2020 season was heating up. Each of the three rounds up to that point had different winners, so no driver had two wins under his belt. With the season drastically shortened to 7 rounds, each remaining round meant a world to the ranked drivers with championship aspirations.
Rally Estonia this year had 17 stages spanning 232.12 km, making it slightly shorter than other rallies. The 1.28-km short stage opened on Friday night, and the race was underway, breaking away from the 6-month hiatus that had felt like ages. The racers rejoiced in their newfound freedom with powerful accelerations.
Despite the six-month blank, the competition showed no signs of rust. The Friday stage had Ford’s Esapekka Lappi and Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier share the fastest 1:17 record, placing them together at the top of the leaderboard. Tanak was third at 0.1 seconds away, and Hyundai’s Craig Breen was fourth at 0.4 seconds away. The bulk of the rally, of course, was to come on Saturday, but if Friday proceedings were any indication, the remaining race would surely entertain.
Taking advantage of his competitors’ mistake in SS3, Tanak zoomed to first place and never lost his grip on it.
On Saturday, Toyota’s rookie Kalle Rovanpera initially stood out, but a puncture suffered on the rear tire during SS3 lost him nearly 30 seconds of precious time. Tanak mercilessly took advantage; he zoomed to first place, coming in six seconds faster than the second-place finisher. His teammate Breen followed in second place, and the Hyundai Team was suddenly finding itself in a commanding position. In SS4, Neuville climbed the leaderboard, leaving the Toyota drivers in the dust and joining Tanak and Breen for a remarkable one-two-three finish.
The Saturday morning stages had been an absolute triumph for the Hyundai Team and a statement for the powerful performance of the i20 Coupe WRC rally car. The triumph seemed to continue for a while, as the Hyundai drivers traded top finishes for the subsequent stages, building up some speculation on the possibility of the first one-two-three finish in team history. But in the afternoon that day in SS7, Neuville slightly veered off the left corner of the circuit in a particularly high-speed section, running into an obstacle. His car’s rear wheel on the passenger side was completely twisted, ultimately leading to a loss of approximately one minute. Frantic repair attempts were made to salvage his participation in the remaining stages, but they were futile. The damage to the vehicle’s suspension led to Neuville’s retiring. However, Tanak and Breen ran in Neuville’s stead and found a stable rhythm. The Saturday schedule closed with the two Hyundai racers holding first and second places.
Rally Estonia is renowned for many jumps that serve as the true test of the rally car’s durability and performance.
In 10 Saturday stages, the Hyundai Team took six stages in all, with each of the team’s three drivers taking at least one victory. Thanks to this favorable result, the Hyundai Team finished the day by outpacing the Toyota Team by more than 30 seconds in aggregate. Toyota’s Ogier, Rovanpera, and Elfyn Evans were eyeing to close the gap, but with only six stages remaining on Sunday, it appeared that the Hyundai Team would close out the rally as victors―barring, of course, something unforeseen.
The very fast average speed in Rally Estonia implies that even a minor mistake can lead to retiring―so drivers must maintain their focus at all times.
On Sunday, first-place Tanak and second-place Breen’s tasks were to close out the race without mistakes, maintaining the sizable lead they had built over the competition. Many sections of Rally Estonia are blazing fast, meaning that the smallest mistakes can snowball into retiring. So focus and composure were needed for Tanak and Breen more than ever.
In the end, though, showing what made him the driver champion of the 2019 season, Tanak executed the remaining stages with mistake-free aplomb. He came in 26.9 seconds ahead of third-place Ogier, raising his first trophy since joining the Hyundai Team. It was a perfect home-field race for Tanak―his grip on victory almost felt secure throughout the race after he rose to first during SS3. For his teammate Craig Breen, who similarly showed finesse in finishing second, the result represented his career-high. With the two drivers at the top, the Hyundai Team enjoyed its fourth one-two finish in the WRC.
The Hyundai Team staff rejoice upon witnessing Tanak’s victory.
The final stage of the race, SS17, was held in the rally’s second-longest course ‘Kambja Power Stage’. The Power Stage had Tanak and Breen come in third and fifth, respectively, adding 3 points and 1 point each to the team’s tally. Together with the 25 points he earned in the rally, Tanak added 28 total points to his individual tally and rose to third place in the driver championship race, with only 13 points separating him and the first-place Ogier.
Thanks to Tanak and Breen’s one-two-finish, the Hyundai Team added the rally-best 43 points to its tally in the manufacturer championship race, closing the gap to the leading Toyota Team to just 5 points―way down from 21 that separated the two teams after Rally Mexico. With the season shortened, this result provided the much-needed hope for the team to continue its challenge for “the double,” simultaneous titles in both the driver and manufacturer championships.
Hyundai drivers with a one-two finish in the 2020 Rally Estonia: (from left) Paul Nagle, Craig Breen, Martin Jarveoja, and Ott Tanak.
Having experienced the career-high result, Craig Breen was understandably ecstatic. “It was a fantastic weekend. The i20 Coupe WRC rally car moved exactly the way I intended it. The early successes at the rally were definitely encouraging, and the courage lasted through the end,” Breen said.
Tanak, who raised his first trophy as a Hyundai driver, was likewise happy: “I am very, very happy to win my first trophy with the Hyundai Team, and it’s particularly meaningful to have this victory at my beloved home country of Estonia. Many, many thanks to my teammates and staff,” Tanak said.
Tanak earned his first victory with the Hyundai Team, rejoicing in the long-awaited resumption of WRC in a place no other than his homeland.
As if to discharge all their suppressed racer instincts, the Hyundai Team drivers and their i20 Coupe WRC rally cars graced the 2020 Rally Estonia with masterclass performances. If they continue to perform at this level in the remaining three rallies, the team may be able to repeat as the manufacturer champion in the 2020 season as well. All eyes now move to Turkey―beginning just two weeks later on September 18th―where the Hyundai drivers will, hopefully, build on their success in Estonia.
