Just a few weeks ago, the idea of Mārtiņš Sesks winning a stage of the World Rally Championship so soon was incredibly optimistic at best. But after setting the second-fastest time on the first proper stage of Rally Poland, suddenly it felt plausible.
In the end, it took the Latvian driver just three stages of his home event to nail the achievement – and he then went and doubled up on the very next test.
After the first morning of Rally Latvia, it leaves Sesks just 3.2 seconds adrift of reigning world champion Kalle Rovanperä who grew up on these roads and is twice a Latvian champion.
Of course, Sesks knows the roads well too and benefited by starting as the last of the Rally1 cars on the road. But he still had to drive the car and is, yet again, creating a real buzz in the service park. Common logic would suggest it shouldn’t be possible for Sesks to be doing what he has done.
“Yeah, I wasn’t expecting that as well,” he agreed with DirtFish. “I don’t know who expected this, but not me.”
Well, actually, Rovanperä did.
“For sure, I was expecting it,” the world champion told DirtFish.
“You can see how he did in Poland. So, I was sure when he comes to these roads where he has been really fast in ERC and stuff. Yeah, I was sure with a good starting place he can enjoy a lot and he’s been driving really well.”
Informed of Rovanperä’s comments, Sesks paused: “Really? He’s lying!”
At the end of the first stage he won, full of adrenalin, Sesks said it was “crazy” and that he “didn’t think we would manage out first stage win that fast”. Having had time to reflect on it at the remote tire fitting zone, the M-Sport driver admitted relief was the overriding emotion.
I'm trying not to think about these things much because we still have a long rally to go and still many stages to do.Mārtiņš Sesks
“When you go so fast at this level, it’s all the time compromising, sometimes pushing a little bit, sometimes being cautious and precise,” he said. “And when you drive like this, sometimes you really don’t know what’s your pace.
“So I was all the time driving, and you have some small straights there so I was thinking, ‘what should I do? Should I push a bit more, or should I keep it steady?’ But I wasn’t talking about the result, just my feeling how I should drive.
“And then we came at the end and it was nice. It’s a relief, I would say, yeah.”
With such a small margin to Rovanperä ahead, and an advantageous road position still for the afternoon, there’s a rally win to fight for. But Sesks is trying not to get ahead of himself.
“I’m trying not to think about these things much because we still have a long rally to go and still many stages to do,” he said. “We are enjoying and so far everything’s been amazing.
“In the car we are still steady and we are enjoying, and of course it’s not easy to cope with all this pressure, but at the same time it gives energy.
“Whenever we step out of the car there’s people cheering and I think it means a lot for a small country like Latvia.”
Sébastien Ogier is just 4.3s behind Sesks in third overall and said it was “great” to see a new name fighting at the front.
“I think we’ve already seen a good image of that in Poland. I was not there, but I was following and seeing quite an impressive pace without hybrid,” Ogier told DirtFish.
“I mean he obviously has the best knowledge of all of us but still, knowledge is not everything and you need to still be able to drive the car that speed so, no, very well done and it’s nice to have new faces pushing the limit.
“I think obviously then the next step will be, of course, to keep that the whole weekend, but also show it somewhere else. That’s always very important. But anyway, if you show that, it’s already a good stone that you put on your foundation.”
