Ott Tänak (Ford) won the Rally Chile, the eleventh round of the 2023 World Rally Championship (WRC), and thus celebrated his second victory of the season. The M-Sport driver showed a consistently convincing performance at the first World Cup round in South America since 2019 and confidently prevailed.
After 16 special stages covering a total of 320.98 kilometers, Tänak had a lead of 42.1 seconds over Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) at the finish. Elfyn Evans (Toyota, +1:06.9 minutes) came third after Teemu Suninen (Hyundai) came off the track while lying in second place on the penultimate stage and was no longer able to continue.
Thanks to his late podium finish, Evans reduced the gap in the championship standings to his teammate Kalle Rovanperä by just two points to 31 points. The reigning world champion came fourth and won the Power Stage, where Evans finished second. With this result, Toyota prematurely defended its world title in the manufacturers’ standings. Takamoto Katsuta in the third Toyota finished fifth.
Wrong tire choice sets Toyota drivers back
Oliver Solberg (Skoda) came sixth, who also won the WRC2 classification. With Gus Greensmith, Sami Pajari (both Skoda), Yohan Rossel (Citroen) and Nikolai Gryasin (Skoda), four other WRC2 drivers completed the top 10.
Tänak led the rally from the start and had an exciting three-way battle with Suninen and Evans on Friday. But on Saturday morning the pendulum clearly swung in favor of the Estonian – thanks to a mistake by the Toyota team.
In the morning they decided on the softer tire compound – a misjudgment. The drivers of the Japanese factory team paid the price for this daring strategy, especially on the last stage of the first Saturday loop. Rovanperä had to brake hard to make his tires last the distance.
Suninen becomes a tragic hero
Evans suffered two punctures, losing almost a minute and dropping from second to fourth in the overall standings. Tänak, who like the Hyundai drivers had relied on hard tires, clearly moved away from the front, followed up with two more special stage victories on Saturday afternoon and only had to save his lead of 58.3 seconds to the finish on Sunday.
For Tänak it was the 19th race victory in the World Rally Championship, which means he is now tied with Markku Alen in ninth place on the list of drivers with the most World Rally Championship victories.
In the duel between the two Hyundai drivers Suninen and Neuville for second and third place, the question on the final day was whether Hyundai would apply a team order and Suninen would let his teammate Neuville, who was better placed in the World Championship, pass.
Heavy departures from Lappi and Loubet on Friday
However, with Suninen’s departure on the penultimate special stage, this question was off the table. After suffering suspension damage, Suninen slid off the track. His strong performance went unrewarded and the Finn became Chile’s tragic hero.
For Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) and Pierre-Louis Loubet (Ford), the long journey to South America wasn’t worth it. Both retired on Friday morning after serious accidents. On the first special stage, Lappi had already caught the inside of the left front wheel in a left-hand bend shortly before the finish and then rolled over several times.
His Hyundai was damaged beyond repair. The same applied to Loubet’s Ford after the Frenchman went off the track on the third stage following a misunderstanding with co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul and overturned violently. Both crews survived the wild accidents uninjured.
Toyota manufacturer champion – Neuville out of the title race
Luxembourger Gregoire Munster (Ford) showed a solid performance in his first World Championship start in a Rally1 car. Until the twelfth special stage on Saturday, the M-Sport driver was in a good seventh place – even though he had to struggle with an unusual handicap on Friday morning.
Passenger Louis Louka had forgotten to take the “prayer books” with the notes. These were then sent to the Belgian as photos on his smartphone, but he often couldn’t read the announcements correctly on the small display. Nevertheless, Munster had a chance of a top 10 result, but two punctures on the twelfth special stage set him back seven minutes.
In the World Cup standings, Rovanperä is still clearly in the lead after eleven of 13 races with 217 points. His lead over Evans (186) is still a reassuring 31 points. Neuville (155) is third and no longer has a chance of winning the title. In the manufacturers’ standings, Toyota leads unassailably with 466 points ahead of Hyundai (260) and M-Sport-Ford (247).
The 2023 World Championship season will continue in four weeks (October 26-29) with the premiere of the Rally Central Europe in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic – the first round in the history of the World Rally Championship to be held in three different countries becomes.