Round eight of the 2024 World Rally Championship is the only entirely new addition to the calendar for this season: Rally Latvia.
Of course, this is an event that has been run in the European Rally Championship – as Rally Liepāja – for over a decade. Yet some of the Rally1 crews will only have experienced it as a winter rally rather than as a summer gravel contest, while others will be making their first-ever visit to Latvia.
With fast and flowing roads and a sandy gravel surface, there is plenty in common with the previous round in Poland. Does that mean Toyota and Kalle Rovanperä will be the ones to beat again, or can Hyundai respond, especially after Ott Tänak’s early disappointment last time out?
Here’s our form guide for the second of three instalments of rapid gravel rallies this summer:
#11 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 4th-41st-3rd
Best Latvia result: N/A
After a challenging Friday sweeping the sandy Polish stages, Thierry Neuville did well to limit the damage in Mikołajki, a powerstage victory helping him to concede just three points of his championship lead to Elfyn Evans.
This trio of fast gravel events was always going to be a tough test for Neuville’s title bid. After Poland he was still keen to gain some extra seat time on quicker roads, but a planned outing on a rally in Lithuania had to be called off – likely a result of Ott Tänak’s heavy accident on his own warm-up appearance in Estonia.
Just like his main championship rivals, Neuville has no prior experience on the roads around Liepāja. But considering his road position, then if he can do a similar job to the one he did in Poland and leave with most of his current 15-point lead intact, it would be a job well done.
#33 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 2nd-4th-6th
Best Latvia result: N/A
Having seemed all out of sorts in both Portugal and Sardinia, Elfyn Evans appeared a lot happier on the faster roads of Poland and more confident with the Toyota underneath him.
Even after running second on the road on Friday, he was only 0.4 seconds from the lead before he had a tire let go on Saturday afternoon, and a powerstage puncture then stopped him taking a bigger chunk out of Neuville’s points lead.
While Latvia is an unknown for Evans, he will hope the conditions are similar enough to Poland that he can pick up where he left off in terms of feeling and performance. There will be stronger favorites for the victory, but another podium and a stronger Sunday points haul would surely satisfy the Welshman before he heads to his happy hunting ground of Finland.
#8 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 40th-1st-2nd
Best Latvia result: N/A
After making a long-awaited return to the top step of the podium in Sardinia, Ott Tänak was rightly being tipped for a strong summer on the high-speed gravel events.
An unfortunate meeting with the local wildlife on the first proper stage ended any hope of winning in Poland, but his pace on Sunday from first on the road showed what could have been and allowed him to still salvage 11 points.
The Estonian doesn’t get a true home round of the WRC this year, but Latvia is as close as it gets to what he knows best, even if he hasn’t competed there since Rally Talsi in 2008.
A high-speed accident early in Tänak’s Rally Estonia outing a couple of weekends ago robbed him of some extra mileage on similar terrain, but with he and Martin Järveoja escaping unharmed, it’s hard to imagine that stopping them from being right in the fight for victory in Latvia.
#17 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 2nd-1st-1st
Best Latvia result: N/A
Sébastien Ogier was another whose Rally Poland ambitions were brought to an early and abrupt end – in his case by an unfortunate accident on reconnaissance that forced him to spend a night in hospital.
Now he’s rested, recovered and ready to return on Rally Latvia: an event that Toyota had added to Ogier’s schedule just prior to Poland to boost its efforts in both championships.
While the eight-time world champion is not alone in being a Latvia first-timer, he also now doesn’t have the similar Rally Poland under his belt. In fact, he hasn’t driven what could be considered a fast gravel rally since stepping back from full-time WRC competition three years ago.
Still, Ogier has been on top form so far in 2024 and it would not be a surprise if he were to resume that in Latvia – especially given his experience and strong record when it comes to brand-new rallies when completely fresh pacenotes need writing.
#16 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 3rd-15th-4th
Best Latvia result: N/A
Following a small blip in his very impressive season so far, Adrien Fourmaux was right back on form and back on the podium in Poland. His third podium of the year took some good fortune after Andreas Mikkelsen hit a bank on Sunday morning, but his pace was also right there at times, including through Super Sunday.
He was one of the only Rally1 drivers with no previous experience in Poland, but Latvia should be more of an even playing field for Fourmaux, especially against the drivers ahead of him in the championship.
That, combined with the confidence from the Poland result, could make the M-Sport man an even stronger force for the podium places.
#69 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 1st-31st-1st
Best Latvia result: 2nd (2017, ERC)
With one win and two offs while leading, Kalle Rovanperä’s part-time season wasn’t living up to his high expectations approaching the mid-point of the year. That was until he answered the call from Toyota management on the Tuesday of Rally Poland. The circumstances were far from ideal but Rovanperä used all his talent to do the best job that he could – and came out as a remarkable winner.
What had been a quiet, relaxing summer has suddenly become incredibly busy: in the two weeks since Poland, Rovanperä has taken his first Porsche Cup win at Imola, done a Rally1 test day near Jyväskylä and drifted his Supra up the Goodwood hill. But he’s having fun, and now returns to Latvia where he spent a chunk of his teenage years honing his craft. A chance to see some old friends, and to show his rivals the way around the local roads?
Rovanperä insists that, seven years on, his past experience won’t count for much. But he loves the flat-out stages found in the Baltic region – some of his most dominant wins have been in Estonia – and even if he needs to re-learn the roads, he surely starts as favorite.
#18 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 8th-35th-29th
Best Latvia result: N/A
These will be an important couple of weeks for Takamoto Katsuta. Rally Poland was a tough one without any prior experience, and he lost too much time on Friday morning after going in the wrong direction on setup. After that, there was too much road cleaning to make much impression, but there were glimpses of better feeling and pace, and he will hope he can take that to Latvia.
Katsuta did take part in a previous version of Rally Latvia in 2015, just his third rally in Europe, which ended in “the biggest crash of my career”. That was far too long ago to be relevant now, but he does enter this rally on a more equal footing than in Poland.
As was the case in Portugal when Toyota last entered four cars, he will be free of any pressure to pick up manufacturers’ points and, with his fondness for fast roads, can target a return to podium-challenging form before his second home event in Finland.
#4 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 12th-1st-4th
Best Latvia result: 1st (2014, ERC)
Latvia will be just the third start of Esapekka Lappi’s season and the first since Kenya at the end of March. Of course, just before that in Sweden he ended his seven-year win drought, so his form – especially on quick roads in northern Europe – is good. A Rally Liepāja win a decade ago won’t count for much, not least because it was held on snow.
The question is what impact will those four months out have had? Lappi enjoys his time at home with his family, and is sure to be feeling fresh and relaxed for a double-header in Latvia and Finland where he ought to be a strong podium contender at the very least.
His Lietuva Rally win last weekend should have knocked the rust off, and made up in some way for missing Poland. Like Andreas Mikkelsen there, from a good road position, he could be at the front from the start on Friday morning.
#13 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 7th-5th-DNF
Best Latvia result: 7th (2020, ERC)
Grégoire Munster followed fifth place in Sardinia with seventh in Poland, where he set some encouraging times along the way. Given Poland’s long absence from the calendar, the experience deficit Munster usually faces relative to his Rally1 rivals was perhaps not so pronounced in Mikołajki – in fact, he had contested the event more recently in the ERC.
The same is true for Latvia, where Munster has made three previous starts on Rally Liepāja between 2019 and 2021. In that sense, he has a better idea of what to expect from the gravel stages than most.
That doesn’t mean he’s likely to suddenly challenge for a podium, but he should be able to target another solid weekend. He should also benefit from having consecutive events of similar style, giving him a chance to build on Poland and further develop his confidence and consistency.
#22 Mārtiņš Sesks/Renārs Francis (Ford Puma Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 5th-48th-70th
Best Latvia result: 1st (2022 & 2023, ERC)
Mārtiņš Sesks far exceeded all expectations on his Rally1 debut in Poland, fighting for the lead on Friday and finishing a fine fifth overall. After that, what could be possible on his home event in Latvia, where he will have the same hybrid kit as everyone else in the top class?
The 24-year-old is a native of Liepāja – his father was the rally-mad mayor who helped to grow the sport’s presence in the region – and has contested the last nine editions of the rally, so knows the roads better than anyone else. He dominated the rally in 2022 (when he won every stage) and 2023.
Of course, he also had good recent experience and success when he started Rally Poland. The main difference in Latvia is that few of the top drivers have ever been there in any category.
The toughest thing might be managing the pressure and expectation that didn’t exist in Poland, and the excitement if a big result is there for the taking as the weekend goes on.
