New Zealander Hayden Paddon and his British co-driver Seb Marshall wrapped up Wales Rally GB in seventh place, the overall position they held for much of the 11th round of the World Rally Championship.
The final five stages yesterday unusually included the power stage as the day's second test, where Paddon was sixth-fastest by just 0.3 seconds, missing a bonus point for fifth-quickest.
Only the top 14 cars in the field of 59 entries were permitted to complete the final stage of the which was delayed and then shortened following an incident unrelated to the rally near to the finish of special stage 23, Great Orme Llandudno.
The closeness of the times carried through into the rally overall, with just 15sec between Paddon's Hyundai motorsport team-mate Thierry Neuville in fifth and Mads Ostberg in eighth after 317.74km of stages through northern and mid-Wales, over three days.
"With only 15 seconds between fifth and eighth, it was a close fight,'' Paddon said.
"We will now prepare for our final WRC event of the season in Australia [next month], determined to finish the season on a high.''
The win in Wales by world champion Sebastien Ogier for M-Sport Ford closed the gap on Hyundai's overall leader, Neuville, to seven points with two rounds remaining.
The Frenchman prevailed after a close battle with Toyota's Jari-Matti Latvala, who had seized the lead in the morning only to fall behind again on the penultimate stage in north Wales.
Ogier, who has now won five times in Britain, finished with an advantage of 10.6sec. Toyota's Finnish driver Esapekka Lappi completed the podium.
Neuville now has 189 points to Ogier's 182 and Tanak on 167. Toyota leads the manufacturers' championship with 317 to Hyundai's 297.
"We have given it everything this weekend. The mistake yesterday ended any chance of scoring a podium but we've pushed hard to reclaim a few lost positions. The championship is far from over,'' Neuville said.
"From a fan point of view, it's getting exciting between me, Sebastien and Ott.
"I'd rather have a bigger lead than we have now, but we can't dwell on what's happened in recent rallies,'' the Belgian said.
The next round is Rally Catalunya, in Spain, on October 25-28.
- RNZ/Reuters
