Hyundai Motorsport's Thierry Neuville won Orlen 74th Rally Poland on Sunday afternoon after Ott Tanak crashed out of the lead early in the morning. It was the Belgian's third victory of the season in a Hyundai i20 and he closed the gap on championship leader Sebastien Ogier to 11 points with five rounds left for the season.
Tanak crashed out from the lead on SS21 and was forced to retire with a damage front left on his M-Sport Ford. Neuville and his co-driver Nicolas Gilsoul steered his car clear of trouble to win the rally with 1min 23.9sec lead over team-mate Hayden Paddon.
Paddon and his co-driver Sebastian Marshall picked up their first podium of the season at Polland. It also marked Hyundai Motorsport's first 1-2 result since Rallye Deutschland in 2014, and eventh double podium overall.
Championship leader and M-Sport driver Ogier finished third, a further 56.9sec behind Paddon in a Ford Fiesta. Dani Sordo had a spectacular weekend for Hyundai and he finished in fourth place ahead of Stephane Lefebvre (Citroen). Teemu Suninen on his M-Sport debut finished the rally in an impressive sixth place.
Mads Ostberg completed seventh in his privateer Ford ahead of Elfyn Evans by almost a full minute. Andreas Mikkelsen, who replaced Kris Meeke at Citroen for Rally Poland couldn't live up to the expectation. He finished in disappointing ninth place ahead of Toyota's Juho Hanninen who completed the top ten.
Jari-Matti Latvala won the final live TV Power Stage to claim five bonus points in a Toyota Yaris. Ogier took four points for second, while Andreas Mikkelsen secured three in a Citroen C3. Stephane Lefebvre and Neuville took two and one point, respectively.
