2023 Rallye Monte-Carlo: Ott Tänak – “Rallye Monte-Carlo is always a difficult one to expect something”

After leaving Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT at the end of last year after three seasons with the Korean manufacturer, Ott Tänak has now returned to the British outfit M-Sport Ford WRT where his FIA World Rally Championship career started in the top category.

Tänak joined M-Sport in 2011 and had quite respected results in his first years for the team, in 2017 when the new regulations came he started to show some more promising results by taking his first overall win in the 2017 Rally Italia Sardegna, and he followed up with one more win later in Rallye Deutschland and ended the season with a third place overall in the standings.

After the 2017 season, he joined Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT for the 2018 season and stayed there for two seasons. He became the World Rally Champion in 2019 for Toyota and since that, he moved on to Hyundai in 2020.

Now he is back at M-Sport and next weekend he will pilot one of the two factory entered Ford Puma Rally1 he is looking to become one of the title contenders for this season if everything goes smoothly.

“Rallye Monte-Carlo is always a difficult one to expect something, but for sure it’s the trickiest rally of the season. It won’t be any easier this time as well to get into the rhythm right away, so we expect nothing less than another tricky weekend in the mountains.” Tänak said.

“We tried to get the best out of our first test days and we were lucky to experience the car in different conditions. It’s never easy to start the season from the blank page and building up the setup, but the boys and girls from M-Sport are working hard and hopefully we are well prepared for the upcoming challenge. I’m really looking forward to our first race together.”

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