At the age of 34 he has nothing to offer to the top of the sport. Novikov was way younger than him and equally impressive and we all saw how that ended. He is very fast on roads he knows well and with lesser competition and a nice attraction to village events and B class championships. Tanak won this event very comfortably and he is the same person who crashes when he tries to be in touch with the second tier of drivers in the WRC.