MOTORSPORT: Toyota's Tanak on cusp of WRC title

The three contenders for the world rally driving title filled the podium at the weekend's foggy British round, with Estonian Ott Tanak winning and now just one step away from ending a 15-year French stranglehold.

Tanak could wrap it up in Spain at the end of the month, but the manufacturers' championship will come down to the last Rally Australia at Coffs Harbour on November 14-17 before the WRC's Antipodean round goes to New Zealand next year.

Toyota is only eight points behind Hyundai now in its defence of the teams' title after Welshman Elfyn Evans won seven stages on his muddy home soil in an M-Sport Ford Fiesta to push the Korean manufacturer's Norwegian driver Andreas Mikkelsen down to sixth in Rally Great Britain and Irishman Craig Breen wound up eighth after rolling his i20 on the last day.

Hyundai's main man, Belgian Thierry Neuville, finished 10.9 seconds behind Tanak's Yaris. Neuville has been runner-up in the past three championships and now likely to drop a place in this year's final standings.

Sebastien Ogier, world champion the past six years with Volkswagen and M-Sport Ford, was 23.8 seconds behind Tanak at the weekend and now trails the Estonian by 28 points (240-212).

Tanak will come to Australia as champion-elect if he leaves Spain with a lead of 30 or more points.

"We still have two more rallies to go and we have seen plenty of drama in the past, so we need to keep focused," Tanak said.

Rally GB had been "a long weekend with long days and short nights and a lot of pressure".

"The gap was never bigger than 10 seconds and every stage I was on the limit," Tanak said.

"It was a hard one, but it feels good."

Tanak's Northern Irish teammate Kris Meeke was the early pacesetter in Wales and ended up fourth, which has boosted Toyota to 332 points for the year to Hyundai's 340.

Ogier's Citroen team has 278, while M-Sport-Ford - champions two years ago - are relegated to fourth this year on 200 after losing the Frenchman.

Wales marked the final WRC appearance of the charismatic 2003 world champion (and 2015-16 world rallycross champion), Norwegian Petter Solberg, who finished 10th outright on the weekend in a VW Polo GTI and won the WRC2 class for privateer R5-specification cars.