World rally champion Kalle Rovanpera claimed four of Friday’s seven stages to take control of Latvia’s maiden World Rally Championship round from impressive home hero Martins Sesks.
The Toyota driver delivered blistering pace and made a smart tyre decision to capitalise on a strong road position to lead the high-speed gravel rally by 15.7s.
Rovanpera’s nearest rival came in the form of Sesks, a two-time winner of the event in its European Rally Championship guise. The M-Sport driver turned heads by claiming his maiden WRC stage wins in the morning, in only his second Rally1 start.
Eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier ended the day in third [+21.6s] ahead of team-mate Takamoto Katsuta [+33.2s], while M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux rounded out the top five [+38.5s].
Hyundai’s Ott Tanak was the best of the title contenders that faced the worst of the road conditions in sixth [+38.8s], ahead Toyota’s Elfyn Evans [+52.7s], while championship leader Thierry Neuville cut a frustrated figure in ninth[+1m23.3s], behind Gregoire Munster [+1m10.2] and ahead of Esapekka Lappi [+1m27.4s].
A divergence in tyre strategies added extra intrigue ahead of the afternoon stages although, the timing screens took on a similar look compared to the morning loop. A second pass through Milzkalne 4.99km provided a hotly-contested fight with the 10 Rally1 cars split by only three seconds.
Ogier gambled on taking only one spare compared to his rivals and it appeared to be an inspired decision as he won the stage by the slimmest of margins. The Toyota driver pipped team-mate Katsuta by 0.1s but the Frenchman was unsure if his tyre choice would pay off.
Carrying the weight of an extra spare wheel, Rovanpera was only a tenth further back, although the Finn extended his rally lead over Sesks by half a second out to 3.7s.
“For sure on this kind of flowing stage you can feel the weight, everybody has different tyre plans for this loop,” said Rovanpera. “We have quite a rough stage next, then we have two stages. Of course, the extra weight is not the best, but we’ll see how it goes.”
Martins Sesks, Renars Francis, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1
Photo by: Tomasz Kaliński
Fourmaux managed to get the better of M-Sport team-mate Sesks by 0.2s and moved up to sixth overall ahead of Evans, although the latter remained the fastest of the championship contenders.
Tanak made set-up changes to his i20 N at…
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