Sébastien Ogier is closing on Mārtiņš Sesks’ second place at Rally Latvia after two of Saturday’s stages, while Kalle Rovanperä romped clear out front.
Ogier began Saturday’s action 5.9 seconds behind the local hero, who had looked to be a threat to rally leader Rovanperä on Friday morning before the world champion surged clear in the afternoon.
Sesks had benefited from a superior start position to the two Toyotas on Friday but in more equitable conditions, Ogier’s supreme experience began to tell.
The eight-time champion took 2.7s from Sesks on SS9, though the Latvian responded to the pressure on SS10 by beating Ogier by 0.3s.
“It looks like I was not pushing enough,” Ogier rued. “It’s really loose at the end, I didn’t feel very comfortable in the car – we have to do better in the next one.”
Sesks claimed a few tenths of a second back from Ogier on Snepele, retaining second place for now
At the end of SS9 Sesks suggested he would be content to lose out to Ogier, commenting: “I think we are not that experienced to fight guys like them.”
Having taken time back from Ogier on the next stage, he admitted to trying “to go a bit faster” but could feel his lack of Rally1 experience holding him back.
“It’s still a bit of experience in places with the car,” Sesks said. “but it’s fun.”
Pulling away from the scintillating fight for second, Rovanperä was fastest by 5.4s on the first stage and set the pace again on the second, claiming his 200th WRC stage win to extend his rally lead to a daunting 29.2s.
“That’s quite cool,” Rovanperä said of his milestone.
“If I had known that I should have gone a bit faster to make the gap bigger! But anyway it was a clean stage.”
Rovanperä has also opted for an adverse tire strategy to the rest, carrying two spares instead of one.
“We’ll see at the end of the loop if it works,” he smiled.
Tänak has already left Fourmaux in his dust and is closing rapidly on fourth-placed Katsuta
Ott Tänak has come alive in the fight for fourth, overhauling Adrien Fourmaux and closing to just 0.5s of Takamoto Katsuta.
Katsuta started the leg holding fourth spot by 5.3s from Fourmaux who, in turn, had 0.3s in hand over Tänak. But Fourmaux immediately slipped back on the opening Pilskalns test, feeling it didn’t suit the Puma Rally1 as “we need more top speed”, and lost more ground on SS10 Snēpele as well.
It leaves the Frenchman 11.4s shy of Tänak and actually closer to seventh-placed Elfyn Evans now, who is just 7.0s behind.
“I had a really, really good stage so I don’t know, it’s not working today,” said a concerned Fourmaux.
“There’s too many straights, it needs to be more technical I don’t know. I’m driving the same as yesterday, we need to understand.”
Katsuta meanwhile had done well to secure fourth place overnight and the superior road position that brings but hasn’t been able to live with Tänak’s speed so far on Saturday. He didn’t seem concerned though.
“Of course it’s a long way to go so we keep pushing and try to avoid mistakes,” Katsuta said. “It’s quite OK, it’s comfortable – still we can push.”
Tänak added: “Today it’s been a little bit more enjoyable than yesterday, but obviously it’s just about the road position so nothing else you can do.”
Freed from road-cleaning duties, Thierry Neuville immediately overhauled Grégoire Munster for eighth place on the first stage of the day – declaring a “massive difference” in cleaning just as one car further back.
“There was much more grip than I expected due to the one car in front,” Neuville said, “but step by step I got into it.”
Neuville quicky usurped Munster for eighth – but climbing higher looks a tough ask
Neuville has put 15.8s between himself and Munster’s M-Sport Ford, but more importantly is now just one position behind title rival Evans, albeit some 47.3s in arrears.
Despite sacrificing his own position to now run first on the road, Esapekka Lappi sounded more upbeat on Saturday morning – but at least now there was a clear reason for there being a lack of grip.
“We need to search for it [the motivation] but I need to be motivated to try to be better, so that’s the big motivation,” Lappi surmised.
Oliver Solberg continues to lead WRC2 in his Toksport Škoda, heading Mikko Heikkilä by 27.2s after admitting to taking things a little easier on Saturday morning.
Sami Pajari is closing on his fellow Toyota GR Yaris Rally2-driving Finn though, lowering the gap to second-placed Heikkilä to just 3.6s.
“I am trying to push, same as yesterday,” Pajari said, who confessed to having some moments. “I don’t if the speed was too high or the corner was too tight, but maybe one of them.”
“Sami is doing a great job,” Heikkilä added. “I am pretty happy for my driving.”
