Kalle Rovanpera has extended his Rally Latvia lead while home hero Martins Sesks stole the show to claim his maiden World Rally Championship stage wins on Friday morning.
Toyota’s reigning world champion ended the morning’s loop of three high- speed stages with a 3.2s margin over Sesks, who once again turned heads, winning two of the three tests in only his second Rally1 start.
Returning eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier dropped to third [+7.5s], while Hyundai’s Ott Tanak impressed despite his road position to sit fourth [+13.7s]. Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta held fifth ahead of Elfyn Evans [+22.0s].
The top 10 was completed by M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux [+22.3s], Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi [+32.6s], M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster [41.6s] and championship leader Thierry Neuville [+41.8s].
Overnight leader Rovanpera picked up where he left off after winning Thursday night’s super special, as the rally proper began with a 4.99km blast through the Milzkalne forests stage.
The Finn benefitted from starting sixth on the road as he faced swept gravel roads. The Toyota driver maintained his 100% stage winning start to the rally to extend his overall lead over team-mate Ogier to 3.7s.
Ogier produced a committed run that included a brush with the bushes to clock a time 1.3s slower than Rovanpera’s benchmark.
“I knew it was tight, but I tried an aggressive style and went a little bit wide in there. It was tighter by slightly more than I thought. There is going to be some close calls for sure," said Ogier.
Takamoto Katsuta completed a Toyota 1-2-3 on the stage as the Japanese climbed from sixth to fifth overall.
Local hero Sesks, starting last of the Rally1 cars, also impressed to move into third overall after posting the fourth-fastest time, just two seconds behind Rovanpera and 4.9s off the lead. This was the Latvian’s first event driving a hybrid-powered version of the Ford Puma.
Only 5.9s covered the top 10 in the stage as Lappi, Fourmaux, Evans, Tanak, Neuville and Munster filled fifth through to 10th on the stage timing screens.
Tanak admitted he was struggling for total confidence while Evans managed to get the better of the Estonian and championship leading Hyundai team-mate Neuville, who limited the damage of sweeping the road to five seconds. The Belgian did drop from second to sixth overall.
Neuville felt the full disadvantage of opening the road in stage three [Tukums 27.56km], as he conceded 23.6s. The stage proved quicker with every pass as Evans, second on the road, was 11.9s faster, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Welshman slipping to sixth overall behind Katsuta.
The stage was claimed by the last Rally1 car to enter it. Sesks capitalised on the conditions to deliver a stunning drive and record a maiden WRC stage win. The effort pipped rally leader Rovanpera, who was struggling with understeer in his GR Yaris, by 1.6s.
“This stage, Tukums stage! Last year we won it by 16 seconds, now we have our first stage win. It’s amazing,” said Sesks, who moved into second overall ahead of Ogier.
Albeit searching for confidence, Tanak posted the third-fastest time, 3.5s adrift despite being third on the road. Ogier was 1.1s shy as he dropped to third overall, 4.3s ahead of Tanak,
“The confidence is not really high and the car is a bit unpredictable,” said Tanak.
His team-mate Esapekka Lappi experienced a similar feeling as the Finn struggled to extract pace out of his i20 N, adding: “It just feels horrible all the time, I don’t know why. I cannot trust for the grip and it makes things very difficult.”
M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux was among those fighting for confidence as the Ford driver was 12.1s slower than his stage-winning team-mate Sesks.
The final stage of the loop [Andumi, 17.86km], one of three Friday stages to be only used once, was the hardest-fought. But there was no stopping Sesks, who added to his stage-winning account immediately after pipping Rovanpera by 0.1s to win stage four.
“It was messy. I made [a] few big mistakes. We are just having a good rhythm I suppose. To drive the same times as world champions…I have nothing to say,” commented a stunned Sesks.
Fourmaux found confidence in his Puma to post the third-fastest time, 0.6s off the pace, which was 0.3s faster than Ogier.
In terms of the championship fight, a frustrated Neuville, unable to compete in the dusty conditions, dropped a further 12.5s, a time that put him comfortably behind title rivals Evans and Tanak.
In WRC2, Oliver Solberg maintained the lead despite struggling with his Skoda. The Swede led Finn Mikko Heikkila by 23.8s, with Ireland’s Josh McErlean third [+26.7s] and Sami Pajari fourth [+33.5s].
The crews head to a tyre-fitting zone before taking on four more stages this afternoon.
