Kalle Rovanpera kicked off the World Rally Championship’s first visit to Latvia in style by claiming an early lead after winning Thursday night’s super special stage with a blistering time.
The reigning world champion, who started his rally career in the Baltic nation, mastered a challenging 11.13km two-lap run through an asphalt and gravel test utilising the Biķernieki circuit in Riga that has previously hosted the World Rallycross Championship.
Tyre choice proved a challenge given the mix of surfaces, but Rovanpera's choice of the soft rubber proved to be the correct one as he posted a time 2.4s faster than his nearest rivals.
Championship leader Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and Rovanpera’s Toyota team-mate Sebastien Ogier clocked identical times to trail the Finn.
Neuville was fortunate to opt for more soft than hard compound tyres on his i20 N, unlike his Hyundai team-mates, to lead the Korean brand’s charge.
“It’s not too bad with the tyre choice we had, we saw that the softs seem to work quite well,” said Neuville.
“No one really knew at the start of the stage, so we were hesitating. We did what we could it is great to kick off in front of such a big crowd.”
Ogier was also among the Toyota contingent that benefitted from selecting softs. But the eight-time world champion, deemed fit to compete after a recce crash ruled him out of Poland last month, felt he didn’t drive “perfectly”.
Home hero Martins Sesks (M-Sport) delivered a fast and committed run, driving a hybrid-powered Ford Puma for the first time, to finish 0.5s adrift of Neuville and Ogier in front of his supporters.
The two-time winner of the event in its European Rally Championship form, Sesks was a second faster than Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, and ahead of Toyota’s other full-time driver Takamoto Katsuta.
A gamble on hard tyres didn’t pay off for rally favourite Ott Tanak, who misjudged a left-hand hairpin and nudged a barrier. The 2019 world champion was 5.9s off the pace.
“We tried to be clever with the tyre choice, but we got it very, very wrong,” said the Hyundai driver. “Frustrating, but excited for the challenge ahead.”
The top 10 was completed by M-Sport Ford duo Adrien Fourmaux and Gregoire Munster, who sandwiched Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi. The trio all suffered on the hard tyres.
Oliver Solberg's Skoda led the WRC2 field by 7.7s, pursued by the Citroen of Nikolay Gryazin, while the winner of the past two events Sami Pajari dropped 10.2s.
The crews will tackle 120.92 competitive kilometres split across eight stages on Friday, punctuated by a tyre-fitting zone instead of a midday service.
