You have to know on which rally and stages the driver was pushing and not. If you just look at the stage times then it may look that the driver was slow. You could say that Meeke and Paddon were also slow on many rallies. Meeke in Poland for example but we know that he wasnt even trying there.

i would say Tänak was really pushing in Poland, Finland (1st and 2nd stage, hit a rock on second stage and that was it), Australia (Friday, Saturday), Spain (Day one on gravel), Portugal (Day one, made a wrong tyre choice for second day and settled in for 5th place after that).

if he would be slow then he wouldnt be in WRC