We always enjoy new events in the World Rally Championship, don’t we?
Last weekend took us to Latvia for the eighth round of 2024, and we saw some absolutely amazing performances out there. But there were a few drivers who misfired too.
Here are Colin Clark’s driver ratings from Rally Latvia 2024:
Toyota
Kalle Rovanperä 9/10
Rovanperä is very much back to his best after a stuttering start to the season. This wasn’t his best performance, that’s absolutely for certain. He had issues on Sunday finding the pace and he had a few issues maybe on Friday building the lead and making the most of the advantage that he had with road position. But no mistakes from Rovanperä – it was almost an anonymous performance and it’s really what we’ve come to expect from him.
He delivers the results for the team. He’s had his little blip this season, he’s got over that blip, I think he’s found some focus that was maybe missing at the start of the year and for sure Toyota need a Rovanperä on form again. The manufacturers’ title is just getting way too close to call, but when Rovanperä is called upon, as he was in Poland, he delivers.
Consummate performance from the young man. Not the perfect performance, but a typical Rovanperä performance. If he doesn’t make mistakes, he’s almost unbeatable. When he doesn’t make mistakes, and he’s driving as we know he can, he’s magical to watch. This wasn’t quite a magical performance, but it was good enough.
Sébastien Ogier 8/10
Ogier’s not a man for the fast gravel or certainly hasn’t been in recent years. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t enjoy fast gravel; he never said he didn’t enjoy fast gravel. Circumstances have obviously meant that this was his first outing in a Rally1 car on fast gravel and it didn’t take him any time at all to get up to speed.
Again, not a classic performance from Ogier. He struggled a little bit to find the setup, I think he was a little bit surprised to find himself in a fight with young Mārtiņš Sesks and Ogier on absolute tip-top form would have driven away from Sesks.
He had to fight hard though, he really did have to fight hard. This was his type of rally, a new rally – and Ogier historically has always done well on new rallies. He’s always been supreme on new rallies. He makes fantastic notes and he has confidence to commit to those notes beyond really what anyone else has.
And, you know, we expected a performance here from Ogier; he delivered a performance. Not, as I say, the absolutely the finest of Ogier, but good enough – absolutely good enough for Ogier to take more points than anyone else this weekend and to deliver for the team exactly what they required, and potentially to ignite a title challenge this year.
That’s an intriguing one, isn’t it? Will Ogier do the rest of the year? I’d love to see it.
Elfyn Evans 7/10
I think Elfyn Evans was always going to be up against it here. You know, we saw how difficult it was for Thierry Neuville. Remember, Elfyn was only one car better than Neuville, so you could argue it was a really decent performance from Elfyn.
I do still feel, though, that he is struggling a little bit. He’s struggling to find that ultimate pace. On fast gravel, where we know he’s most comfortable, I still think he’s struggling a little to find the maximum commitment that you need to be fighting at the top.
You know, Sundays are where, for sure, the likes of Tänak and Neuville are finding redemption when they have issues. Sundays are still a bit of a struggle for Elfyn. Having said that, he’s reduced the gap to Neuville in the championship, so it’s all getting very tasty indeed.
And you have to say that in terms of what’s in reserve, what potentially could still come, Elfyn has the most to offer if he can find that extra missing 1%. And it isn’t a half a percent that’s missing, it’s 1% that’s missing from Elfyn Evans right now. He goes to Finland – one of his favorite rallies – and needs a strong, strong result in Finland. One car better on the road don’t forget because Tänak has passed him in the championship race.
Not a bad performance from Elfyn Evans but he’ll look for a better performance in Finland.
Takamoto Katsuta 6/10
You really do have to put this performance into context. Poland was an absolute nightmare, one of the worst performances that we’ve seen from Katsuta in a very long time. He looked well and truly lost in Poland. He’s bounced back here though.
Set some really competitive times, but he blotted his copybook with that mistake on the Saturday where he entered the chicane too quickly and ended up in a tree, damaging his power-steering. You know, you’ve got to build pace and you have to build consistency, and this has been Takamoto’s issue right through his career so far.
We know he’s got pace, but he can’t build consistency. He’s struggled to build the consistency. He’s consistent when his pace is mediocre. When he gives us that ultimate pace that we know he can, which is potentially rally-winning pace, the consistency isn’t there. And that’s again what we saw this weekend.
It is a big stride forward for Takamoto Katsuta, but that mistake for me was a little bit worrying. Let’s see what he can do in Finland, his favorite rally of the year.
Hyundai
Thierry Neuville 6/10
Thierry Neuville did a decent job out there, he really did. But I think Neuville was hampered not just by the amount of gravel on the Latvian roads that he had to sweep clean, but I also think he was distracted. I think he was distracted by the title race. I think he was distracted by the fact that once again fast gravel isn’t going his way. He was distracted by the road position argument and he wasn’t fully focused because we’ve seen Neuville in that position in the past battling and fighting hard.
Yeah, he didn’t make any mistakes, and he was thoroughly decent out there this weekend, but I didn’t sense that fighting spirit from Neuville. He was arguing, he was distracted. He was finding excuses when really he should have just been focusing hard to get the best out of it.
It may well have been an impossible task out there this weekend. The gravel was very specific and sweeping was clearly as big an issue as we’ve seen in a while. But I think he could have given more. I really think that the fighting, battling, tenacious Neuville that we know could have given more this weekend, but we’ll see.
He’s feeling the pressure, that is for sure. Ott Tänak is the man in the ascendancy right now. He’s the man who looks like a champion. Neither, you’d have to say, Neuville nor Evans look like champions right now. Tänak does, and that for Neuville, I think, might be getting to him. Maybe that was the source of some of the distraction this weekend?
Ott Tänak 9/10
Ott Tänak is coming back to his very, very best. He is driving that car with a degree of commitment and speed that I don’t think we’ve seen. We may have seen it once in his Hyundai career when he won in Finland all those years ago, but that was just the most remarkable drive, the most remarkably brave drive.
Tänak isn’t having to do silly things as he did that year in Finland to win stages. He is absolutely on it and making it once again look relatively easy.
You know, when Tänak was winning regularly in the WRC, he was an intimidating presence. And I think other drivers are being intimidated by him. But what was lovely to see with Tänak was a smile returning to his face. I think he’s finding a balance now between that hard-faced, difficult Ott Tänak and that appreciative, almost endearing, Tänak.
Can I say that? I’m not sure I can after just one or two events where, you know, we’ve seen a different side to him and that different side to him is working. Lots of things are working right now for Ott Tänak. He’s clearly feeling more comfortable in that car. He’s feeling more comfortable maybe in himself, maybe in his position within the team and that may be the most important factor.
As we mentioned in Poland, I sensed a shift in terms of the team’s focus. It was a subtle shift, but it was definitely a shift in Poland. They could see that Tänak had momentum and that clearly suits him, that clearly suits Ott Tänak. In the team in the past he has battled not just the car, he’s battled his position in the team and perhaps Thierry Neuville’s influence within the team.
I sense that is changing and it suits Tänak, and he is looking strong. And if I was forced to bet, which I never do, my money would be on Tänak for the championship.
Esapekka Lappi 4/10
I was bitterly disappointed in Lappi’s performance. I really did see him as at least a podium sitter. And you know what? Hyundai needed him to be pushing here this weekend for the podium. They really did.
Yeah, they went out with the wrong setup and that’s partly down to the team, it’s partly down to the driver. I don’t know how much influence Lappi has over the amount of testing he can get, but you know, he had that small event in the week leading up to Latvia that certainly would have helped him, but he looked lost, he looked completely lost.
What we see with Tänak, what we see with Neuville,is when adversity is there, when things are against them, they knuckle down, they battle hard. Unfortunately with Esapekka, when things are going wrong, mentally he loses it, mentally he’s gone, and you hear it in those stage-end comments. It’s a signpost to everyone else – Esapekka’s out of this. And that’s not good.
Yeah, he’ll argue, well, we didn’t have a service on Friday, there was nothing we could do to change the setup – and he did look stronger Saturday and Sunday – but it wasn’t a good enough performance from Esapekka Lappi. He was sacrificed by the team, but only because he put himself in a position to be sacrificed. It wasn’t a good enough performance from him and he needs to do better.
And do you know what? He needs to do better for not just for the team, but for his future. Lappi has to go out in Finland and say, ‘It’s mine, you can’t look anywhere other than me for that third car next year.’ It will require a massive improvement on the performance that we saw here in Latvia. But Lappi is capable.
M-Sport Ford
Mārtiņš Sesks 10/10
Ten out of 10 again – just the most astonishing debut in a full Rally1 car. Winning stages, and let’s not forget, Mārtiņš Sesks is winning stages at an earlier point in his career than Kalle Rovanperä was. Yes, he had something going for him, he knew the stage, but the kid was remarkable, he was quite remarkable.
The way he drove that car, the way he managed to understand that car, to extract the maximum out of that car, more importantly, the way he managed to keep his head, to keep his cool, to keep his composure while battling an eight-time World Rally champion, for me was astonishing.
You know, I’ve been fortunate enough to be around at some real seminal moments in the World Rally Championship. When Rovanperä burst onto the scene, I was there when he won his first stage, I was there when he won his first rally, I was there when he won his first title, all seminal moments. When Latvala won his first event in Sweden, when Loeb won his sixth title outside the town hall in Hagenau, all of these moments were magical, iconic moments in the World Rally Championship.
It’s not too much, I don’t think, to describe Sesks’ performance this week in a similar vein. It was incredible and we won’t see it happening again, I don’t think, for a long time. I don’t think we’ll see a young driver coming on to the scene with that kind of impact that quickly again for a very long time.
Is there a future for Sesks? Absolutely, but unfortunately what we know about rallying is that it’s not just about talent, it’s about talent and opportunity. Talent and opportunity have to align for a young driver to make it in the sport. The talent is there; the very, very big question is, is the opportunity there?
Adrien Fourmaux 6/10
Yes, Adrien Fourmuax finished fourth, but he didn’t find the pace that I hoped to see – particularly on Sunday. Fourmaux is a delight and a pleasure to watch and listen to and a completely different driver from the driver that we saw last year – and in particular from the driver that we saw 18 months ago when he left the top level of the championship with his tail between his legs. He’s a different character.
Something got to him on Friday morning though, and I guess much like Neuville, he was distracted. He was distracted. He felt, I think, hard done by. He felt as if the team weren’t sharing information with him. And what did that do? It basically affected his focus and his concentration. You know, you can have all the talent in the world, but if you’re distracted, it’s no good. You need to give 100% of your focus to those stages, particularly fast gravel stages that require such an enormous level of commitment.
He wasn’t there on Friday and it was a mistake. It was an enormous mistake. Once he got that resolved, that issue resolved, he looked better. But it’s all about the championship this year. He’s looking for a fourth place finish in the championship and who knows, maybe higher. And to do that, he needs to be quick on Sundays. Sunday he was nowhere near quick enough this time around.
So, not a bad performance again from Adrien Fourmaux, but not the level of performance that we have seen throughout this year and I’m pretty certain, not the level of performance that he had hoped for in Latvia. Focus is what it’s all about. Concentration has to be 100%, and it wasn’t.
Grégoire Munster 4/10
One decent stage where he finished, I think, third quickest. Other than that, not an awful lot of progress, unfortunately. He was very lucky to survive a very big mistake where he came over a jump at the wrong angle and with probably a little bit too much pace, hit the bank and, well it was skill that clearly got the car back on the road, but he was lucky, that’s for sure.
He needs to keep progressing, and I guess you could say that the fact that, once again, he’s completed the rally, completed every stage of the rally, is progress. But what Munster needs to do to encourage his backers to give him another season – and any young driver needs a second season, one season is not enough. You need two seasons, at least, to establish yourself.
What Munster needs to do is to show continuous progress, and I feel that this one, you know, after the progress of Sardinia, the high finish in Sardinia, the competitive-at-times performance in Poland, this was a little bit of a stall for him in terms of his forward progress, and he’ll need to put that right in Finland, but that is no easy task.
He’s been to Finland before, he knows Finland, but driving a Rally1 car at such a high-speed rally that needs such commitment, making progress in terms of the time differential between him and the top boys is going to be difficult, but he needs to stay on that upward trajectory.
Flat-lining is no good, it’s got to keep going up for Grégoire Munster and he knows that. Points for staying on the road, points for completing the rally, but there’ll be more points when we start to see a bit more progress.
