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.
Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
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…
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