It hasn’t been a good start for Ott Tänak at Hyundai Motorsport or, for that matter, on the start of his quest to defend the title he conquered with Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT in 2019. 

The Estonian driver has suffered a dramatic accident this Friday during the second day of the Rally Monte Carlo 2020. Fortunately, both the driver from Karla and his co-pilot and compatriot, Martin Järveola, have come out unharmed.The same cannot be said of their car, however, which has been badly damaged after rolling over several times at speed during 13 seconds. The following images show the violence of the impact.

The Estonian couple came off track in a bumpy stretch of mountain road at about 185 km /h, during the first running of special number 4: St. Clement-sur-Durance – Fresissinières. Despite the gravity of the crash, both teammates were able to get out of the car by their own means. At the time of the incident, Ott Tänak was fourth in the standings. His Hyundai teammate, Belgian Thierry Neuville, heads the provisional race classification after three specials, preceding the Yaris WRC of both Briton Elfyn Evans and French Sébastien Ogier.

Well known for being a hard and unpredictable race, the Rally Monte Carlo has now claimed a new ‘victim’, competitively speaking. The legendary appointment has given a fresh demonstration on why it is considered the most challenging of the WRC 2020 calendar. Tänak himself, in a sort of premonitory statement, declared after the end of the first day on Thursday that he was happy to be alive after the race. With those words, the Estonian driver wanted to convey the extraordinary difficulties he had faced right from the start of the Alpine appointment.

The #8 of the team led by Tommi Makinen, who has never managed to win at Monte Carlo, will have to wait for at least another year to try his luck again, although in the last three editions at least he had always made it to the podium.