Kalle Rovanpera has extended his Rally Latvia lead on Friday morning, while home hero Martins Sesks stole the show to claim his maiden World Rally Championship stage wins.
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 by 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 forest stage.
The Finn benefitted from starting sixth on the road as he faced swept gravel roads and extended his overall lead over team-mate and fellow part-time driver 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,” said Ogier. “It was tighter by slightly more than I thought. There is going to be some close calls.”
Takamoto Katsuta completed a Toyota 1-2-3 on the stage as the Japanese climbed from sixth to fifth overall.
Local hero Sesks started last of the Rally1 cars on his first outing in a hybrid-equipped Ford Puma, after driving without it in Poland. The M-Sport man moved into third overall, 4.9s off the lead, after posting the fourth-fastest time which was just two seconds behind Rovanpera.
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 his 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. An elated Sesks, who won the rally last year when the event formed part of the European Rally Championship, capitalised on the conditions to record a maiden WRC stage win by 1.6s from an understeering Rovanpera.
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,” reported Tanak.
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.”
Fourmaux was also among those fighting for confidence, as the Ford driver was 12.1s slower than 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,” admitted Sesks. “We are just having a good rhythm I suppose. To drive the same times as world champions…I have nothing to say!”
Fourmaux found confidence in his Puma to post the third-fastest time, shaving 0.3s from Ogier's advantage.
A frustrated Neuville, unable to compete in the dusty conditions, dropped a further 12.5s to fall further 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.
