Kalle Rovanpera dominates in FIA WRC win in Tet Rally Latvia in Toyota 1-2 from Sebastien Buemi, as Ott Tanak ended up third.
Friday:
Kalle Rovanperä opened up a 15.7sec lead over local rising star Mārtiņš Sesks at Tet Rally Latvia as the two youngsters stole the show on Friday. Latvia’s FIA World Rally Championship debut marks something of a homecoming for the 23-year-old Finn, as it was on the Baltic nation’s roads that he started his first-ever rally at the age of 12.
Helped by his stage win on Thursday’s opener at Biķernieki Track in Rīga, which attracted a sell-out crowd, Rovanperä was never headed on Friday and won four of the day’s seven super-fast gravel road tests in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. But it was 24-year-old hotshot Sesks, contesting only his second event in rallying’s highest echelon and utilising hybrid power for the first time in his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1, whose performance raised more eyebrows.
Sesks, who is co-driven by fellow Latvian Renārs Francis, reaffirmed that the future is here now when he grabbed his first-ever WRC stage win on the day’s second stage at Tukums, passing eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier in the process. And, as if that weren’t enough for the 24-year-old, he backed it up with another fastest time on the very next test.
Takamoto Katsuta’s all-in approach to the Talsi finale helped the Toyota driver pass Ott Tänak and claim fourth overall. He ended 11.6sec adrift of Ogier with M-Sport Ford man Adrien Fourmaux, who also overtook Tänak in the same stage, 5.3sec behind. Tänak, meanwhile, fell from fourth to sixth after a challenging day.
The Estonian reported a lack of confidence early on as well as a brake issue which he fixed on the roadside after the penultimate stage. Elfyn Evans, currently second in the points, trailed the leaders by more than 50sec in seventh. Although he was not hit as hard as championship leader and road-opener Thierry Neuville, the Toyota ace was second in the starting order and struggled to find traction with no real clean line to follow.
Tyre damage cost Esapekka Lappi a handful of seconds on SS5 but the i20 N driver was quick to point out that his main problems lay “between the steering wheel and the seat”. He dropped back to 10th after SS8, languishing behind Grégoire Munster and Neuville.
Saturday:
Kalle Rovanperä’s rivals were left trailing in his dust after the Finn extended his Tet Rally Latvia lead with a sublime second-leg drive on Saturday. The 23-year-old, who made his competition debut in the Baltic nation more than 10 years ago, distanced the chasing pack through eight super-fast gravel tests near Liepāja to grow his advantage from 15.7sec to 42.5sec with just one day remaining of this eighth round.
It was a milestone morning for Rovanperä as he notched up the 200th stage win of his WRC career on the sun-kissed Snepele test. His advantage climbed to 34.8sec by mid-leg service and that dominance continued into the afternoon, with the Finn topping the timesheets on all but one occasion. His Toyota team-mate Sébastien Ogier made it a GR Yaris 1-2 with local ace Mārtiņš Sesks a close third.
Ogier began the day 5.9sec behind Sesks but surpassed the M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 youngster in the final stage of the morning. Luck was on the Frenchman’s side when he ran wide into a ditch on SS11, ploughing through the undergrowth before popping back onto the road unscathed.
Sesks, who ended the day just 4.7sec further back, sits on the cusp of a sensational podium on only his second outing at rallying’s highest level. The two drivers ahead of him, plus Ott Tänak behind, are all previous world title winners. Tänak climbed from sixth to fourth in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1, winning SS11 and closing to within 6.3sec of Sesks.
However, a transmission fault in the day-ending Liepāja City Stage cost him around 15sec and he reached the overnight halt 20.8sec in arrears. The Estonian was successful in collecting more Saturday classification points than fellow title challengers Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville, who were sixth and eighth respectively, but he must finish the rally on Sunday in order to bank them.
Fifth went the way of Puma star Adrien Fourmaux, who ended 8.4sec down on Tänak but with 17.9sec in hand over Toyota man Evans. Takamoto Katsuta fell to seventh, having run as high as fourth before an impact broke his GR Yaris car’s power steering on SS11. Championship leader Neuville, still struggling with low traction running second on the road, placed eighth in his Hyundai while Esapekka Lappi and Grégoire Munster completed the top 10.
Sunday:
Kalle Rovanperä sealed a dominant start-to-finish victory at Tet Rally Latvia on Sunday afternoon, wrapping up his second triumph in as many high-speed gravel events. Having started his first-ever rally on Latvia’s roads more than 10 years ago aged 12, the Finnish driver rolled back the clocks to win the Baltic nation’s first FIA World Rally Championship round.
Rovanperä was never seriously challenged during the four-day fixture, which started in the capital city Rīga on Thursday evening before journeying south towards Liepāja. He built a comfortable lead during the first two legs in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 and eased through the finale to win the season’s eighth round by 39.2sec.
Sébastien Ogier completed a 1-2 for the Japanese marque while Ott Tänak stole the final podium spot from Mārtiņš Sesks after the local hero was plagued by transmission fault in the Wolf Power Stage. Sesks was cruelly deprived of what could have been a maiden podium on only his second outing at rallying’s top level.
The 24-year-old won two stages on Friday and entered the final test with 4.6sec in hand over Tänak despite two overshoots earlier in the morning, but his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 developed a transmission problem just one corner into the stage. The drivers’ championship battle closed up as Tänak extracted maximum points from Super Sunday and climbed to second in the drivers’ championship standings.
He now trails Hyundai i20 N Rally1 team-mate Thierry Neuville by just eight points with five rounds remaining with Elfyn Evans, who slipped to third in the standings, just five points further back. Neuville and Evans finished eighth and fifth respectively and both struggled to recover from the time loss they faced by opening the road in loose conditions on Friday.
M-Sport Ford man Adrien Fourmaux ended 27.0sec behind Tänak in fourth despite encountering a small engine problem on the last two stages, with Toyota star Evans finishing a further 11.2sec in arrears. Takamoto Katsuta brought his GR Yaris home sixth ahead of Sesks and Neuville, while Esapekka Lappi and Grégoire Munster both nursed technical issues through the closing stages to complete the leaderboard.
Result: https://www.wrc.com/live-timing?liveTimingMenu=overall_livetiming&stage=FINAL&championshipId=245
[Note: The story is as per press release]