Tanak eyes star showing in Portugal

After a year on the sidelines, the Estonian battled for a podium finish on his World Rally Championship return in Sweden in February and took fifth place.

He then missed out on winning last weekend's Fafe Rally Sprint by just half a second to world champion Sebastien Ogier, despite it being his first gravel outing in a World Rally Car in more than a year.

The Estonian stays in the M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC for the Portuguese WRC round, which starts on Thursday night.

"I want to go fast and improve on what I did in Sweden," Tanak said. "But the first target is to minimise the risk and get to the finish.

"Fafe was good for me, it was a good road and a good test - everything was perfect for us there.

"The only problem for me on this event is that I didn't do it last year which means I had to the recce in the rain, which makes it difficult to know how good the notes are."

Asked for a prediction for his fourth Portugal start, he said: "I don't want to make a target like a podium, it would make it too much on the limit.

"We'll try to stay right behind the podium guys and maybe we can be there [on the podium]."