Ott Tanak has taken aim at World Rally Championship officials after being delayed when an inflatable arch blocked stage 14 at Rally Latvia.
The Hyundai driver was angered by a bizarre incident during the Vecpils 12.64km when a promotional arch appeared to block the road and was subsequently collected by the car.
Tanak’s car was captured by broadcast cameras grounded to a halt with an arch draped over his i20 N Rally1. Officials quickly red flagged the stage while Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja attempted to remove the arch from the car.
It appears the incident was triggered when Toyota’s Elfyn Evans ran wide at the right hander before the arch. He collected a couple of advertising hoardings before driving on the grass verge close to the arch.
“A bit of a silly mistake. I tried not to be too aggressive loading the car and got caught out,” said Evans.
Tanak, sitting in fourth, was clearly angered by the strange incident and took aim at race control.
“I think this exactly describes how we are in safe hands in terms of race control probably they were having a nice meal and good wine when on the cameras you could see the road is blocked and there is a car coming. Well done race control you are really taking care of us,” said Tanak on the television broadcast after eventually reaching the stage end.
“We are ok but f****** hell you could see the road was blocked and you [race control] keep it running. Hopefully, it was a good wine.”
"Car number 33 left the stage, damaging the supports of an inflatable branding arch towards the end of SS14 on Saturday afternoon at Tet Rally Latvia," read a statement from the event organiser.
"It was clear there was damage to the arch and two staff, positioned specifically to ensure the safety of the arch moved immediately to remove it from the road. They were not able to do this prior to the arrival of car number 8."
M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux was the first to come across Tanak adding: “It is quite unlucky for Tanak, I feel sorry for him.”
The stage was restarted with Takamoto Katsuta, Fourmaux and Tanak receiving a nominal time.
Rally leader Kalle Rovanpera won the restarted test by 3.9s to extend his lead over Ogier to 41.3s.
