Tanak reveals he retired after first M-Sport exit

Tanak was shown the door by Malcolm Wilson's team after a turbulent 2012 season (pictured above) and has admitted he turned his back on the WRC at that point.

"In 2013 I had no plans to come back," he told Autosport.

"I was retired and finished. I started my own company, I started my new job.

"Let's say I was not pushing to come back. I drove a Group N car at home, but I did it for fun.

"This is an expensive sport and at the top level I knew it wasn't possible just to do it a bit - so I had no plans.

"But somehow we got some new opportunities, some new chances and then it came back."

Tanak was thrown a career lifeline by M-Sport and DMACK with a partial programme in 2014 (pictured above) that led to a recall to the main M-Sport team the following year.

Though he was demoted back to the satellite DMACK car for 2016, he earned another frontline M-Sport chance last year and became a WRC event winner and outside title contender for the first time.

He then accepted a Toyota offer, and his second place in the Yaris on last week's Monte Carlo Rally marked the first time he had driven a non-M-Sport car on a WRC round since winning Production WRC in a Pirelli Star Driver Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X on Rally GB 2010.