Ott Tanak can stake World claim, says his leading Northern Ireland engineer Jamie McMillan
The Estonian kept his cool in extreme conditions at the 'Rally of the Gods' to finish with a 32.8-second lead over the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 of eight-time champion Sebastien Ogier, despite his i20 N Rally1 being struck down with transmission problems right at the death.
The result has significantly boosted his title credentials and moves him to within 12 points of Elfyn Evans and three adrift of Ogier who has only signed up for a partial programme.
Crucial to the result was the work of Tanak's mechanics during service halts, with these operations orchestrated by the 37-year-old's top engineer — Ballyclare's Jamie McMillan.
McMillan feels the manner of the Acropolis performance fuels Tanak's victory hopes going to his home fixture next week.
'For Ott to win in Greece in the fashion he did, in such a positive way, and swing the odds a little bit back in our favour in the World Rally Championship fight is really great,' he said.
'It is definitely nice to get a victory for the team because it has been a long and super busy first six months and, ultimately, having a victory to celebrate in Greece is a big boost.
'The morale is an improvement on where it has been, and our attention has already turned to Estonia.
'We are trying to get the car in as good a window as possible for his home event.'
He added: 'Ott is fast and usually competitive in Estonia, although the high-speed gravel roads are going to be a challenge with the updated 'Evo' car and we are going to have to work hard to pull the package together, to make it work, if we want him to fight for the victory there.
'If we can, then we have Estonia to look forward to and then Finland where the roads are similar.'
McMillan hopes Tanak's run of bad luck in the first half of the campaign is now at an end and those who feed into the No.8 car can pull out all the stops to keep him in the title fight until the final round in November.
'We are not in too bad a position now and hopefully we can take advantage of Seb's absence in Estonia and take some good points and close the gap on Elfyn,' he added.
'If we do that, then the rest of the season should be really interesting — especially as Ott's pace has just always been there.'
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