With one eye on Croatia Rally, the priority for him at a sodden Rallye des Ardennes in Belgium was about seat time and making th♐e most of ꧙it. Pure and simple.

On his first foray to the event - the third rꦗound of the Belgian Championship - times o𒆙n this occasion were of little relevance to him and co-driver Martin Jarveoja.

Instead, getting c🦄omfortable in the Puma Rally1 on a Tarmac event, and trying to identify the car’s handling sweet spot on the surface, were the two big priorities.

They had 12 special stages and the best part of 90 competitive miles to tick those boxes and, on reflection, the 20🍷19 World Rally Champion felt it was a worthwh🦩ile exercise.

“We did as much as we could. We weren’t competing, so it wa📖sn’t about pushing as hard as we could,” explained Tanak, who is currently second in the World Rally Championship points’ standings to the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 of Sebastie💝n Ogier.

“It was good to be here – it was a good chance to get some extra mileage on Tarmac and to get🃏 a good feeling. The🦋re was a regular job for the mechanics to do [between each loop], so we were all trying to learn as much as we could,” he continued.

What helped the learning process, no doubt, was the wet conditions that Tanak faced as 🏅first car on the road around Dinant – conditions that could potentially be replicated in Croatia in a fortnight’s time.

That was another reason behind Tanak pushing M-Sport Ford to rock uꦗp at a national rally last Saturday.

A similar exercise was signed-off by team bosses prior to Rally Sweden back in February and that played a sizeable part in helping them to eventually go on and win it - their first success in the competitio♑n since Rallye Monte-Carlo 13 months earlier.

So how h🔴opeful is Tanak of repeating the trick when the World Rally Championship resumes on April 20-23?

“This [rally] can be [representative] – but we will have to wa꧃it to see what the weather will be like in Croatia in a couple of weeks,” he said.

“🎃We know it can be a tricky event, one which can bring lots of surprises. The roads and the conditions were tricky here, so this was good experience.

“This is part of the game and it is a ꦏlong season ahead, so let’s see. The𒈔re is still a long way to go.”