Tanak winner in the Central European Rally, the champion will be decided in the finale in Japan

Ott Tanak’s win in the 12th round of this year’s World Rally Championship, combined with Thierry Neville’s 3rd place, means the two Hyundai drivers will settle their differences for this year’s world champion at Rally Japan (21-24 November).

Neville certainly has the upper hand in this battle given his 25-point lead over Tanak at the top of the championship – while Toyota’s Elfyn Evans and Sebastien Ozier now have no hope of the title as after Rally Central Europe were 40 and 59 points respectively behind the Belgians.

Things would have been (slightly) different for Ozier if he hadn’t retired in the penultimate stage of the Central European Rally. The Frenchman had the precious points of first place on Saturday, but on Sunday morning a mistake knocked him off the top, and then his exit forced him to retire.

So, in effect, Ozier gifted Tanak victory in the Rally Central Europe: the Estonian finished 7.0” ahead of Evans and 32.8” ahead of Neville, who claimed a desperate podium after a his own fault on Saturday.

The Belgian needed to get 2 points more than his Estonian Hyundai counterpart in this race to mathematically seal the title, but in the end he left this race with 4 less.

At the start of the Central European Rally, held in Specials of the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria, Ozier initially had a small lead over Neville. But the Belgian soon capitalized on his first starting position, on clean tarmac, to climb to the top. Thus, on Friday night he was leading the overall with a difference of 6.4” from Ozier, while Tanak followed 1.4” behind.

On Saturday, in rain and fog on the tarmac Specials of Germany and Austria, Neville saw his lead at the top cut to less than a second from Tanak. The Estonian appeared to be taking risks in these conditions, and Hyundai boss Cyril Abiteboul was so alarmed that he texted the Estonian to express his concern about the constructors’ title battle with Toyota.

By his time on ED9 Tanak had moved up to 2nd, passing Ozier, but in the next Special he respected Abiteboul’s request and dropped back to 3rd, reducing his pace.

But in ED11 things took a bad turn for the Hyundai: Neville went off the road in a left-hand bend, and trying to get back onto the road he got stuck in a ditch in the grass. This cost him over half a minute, and dropped him to 4th overall.

Ozier then moved into the overall lead and by winning two of Saturday’s afternoon Specials ended the second day of racing with a lead of 5.2″ over Tanak and 14″ over third-placed Evans.

But things took a turn for the Frenchman on Sunday: he initially lost his brakes and went straight into an intersection, allowing Tanak to take the lead – 1.9” at the top.

In the next test the French eight-time champion took 4 tenths from the Estonian, but it was all over for him when he retired in the penultimate Special, going off the road just 600m after it had started.

This abandonment of Ozier cost him 18 points from Saturday’s first place, and it was a major blow to Toyota’s hopes of retaining the constructors’ scepter in this year’s championship. The two teams now head into the final constructors’ battle at Toyota’s home ground with Hyundai leading by 15 points.

Rounding out the top six of the Central European Rally were Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta (who won the final Power Stage and its 5 points), M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster and WRC2 class leader Nikolai Griazin.

M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmot suffered front differential problems on Saturday, which ultimately forced him to retire on the second day of racing.

Finally, the promising Sami Payari made his WRC asphalt race debut in a factory Toyota Rally1 car, initially impressing with 6th place overall, but in ED16 he went off the road, overturned his Yaris Rally1 and was forced to retire.