Kalle Rovanperä leads Rally Latvia after Friday morning’s loop of stages, but home hero Mārtiņš Sesks is keeping him honest after claiming his first-ever World Rally Championship stage win.
The rally began with a lengthy superspecial at Biķernieki Track on Thursday evening, so Friday was the first opportunity for drivers to discover the Latvian forest roads in the WRC.
At 3.1 miles, the opening stage of the loop, Milzkalne was, in the words of Sami Pajari, “just a shakedown” for what was to follow. Also on the menu was the meatier 17.1-mile Tukums and 11.1-mile Andumi before the midday remote tire fitting zone.
Reigning world champion Rovanperä picked up where he left off on Thursday by setting the fastest time again on Friday’s beginner, 1.3s up on Sébastien Ogier who explored the limits with a wild moment early on.
Running wide through a right-hander, Ogier dipped the rear-left wheel off the road and into a ditch which left his Toyota carrying some greenery.
Ogier was fast out of the blocks but couldn't keep a charging Sesks at bay
“I knew this corner, I knew it tightened but I tried to start aggressive, and a little bit wide in there,” Ogier explained. “There’s going to be some close calls for sure.”
Despite feeling as if “I can do much better” on SS3, Rovanperä again extended his advantage over Ogier by 3.0s – but credited most of that to his lower starting position of sixth.
“For sure the driving and the feeling in the car was not good, I was struggling with the balance of the car with a lot of understeer,” the rally leader said.
“I couldn’t really push for a proper time, the feeling was not good. I can do much better.”
One driver who did better was Sesks – the young Latvian blitzing SS3 to record his first-ever WRC stage win by 1.6s.
“This stage, arrghh, last year we won it by 16s now we have our first [WRC] stage win. It’s amazing,” Sesks said. “B***** hell. We just have to refocus now.”
Sesks registered stage wins number one and two of his WRC career on the Friday morning loop
That run elevated the M-Sport driver ahead of Ogier into second place, 3.3s behind Rovanperä who again struggled with the car on the loop-concluding SS4. That presented Sesks with an opportunity, and the Latvian took advantage by taking another stage win – albeit by just 0.1s.
Overall, Sesks trails the Toyota driver by just 3.2s overall.
“To drive in the same times as world champions… I have nothing to say,” Sesks smiled.
Ott Tänak is the leading of the championship contenders; fourth overall despite not feeling totally happy aboard his Hyundai.
“I’m not in a good rhythm, the confidence is not really high and the car is very unpredictable, it’s difficult to find the full flow,” Tänak said after SS3.
However the 2019 world champion ended the loop 6.2s shy of the podium, and 5.0s ahead of Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta who felt he should be pushing more but had a clean morning.
It was a frustrating time however for championship leader Thierry Neuville, who had started Friday joint second with Ogier following the mostly asphalt superspecial. But as expected, the Belgian slid down the leaderboard as he swept the loose gravel clear for those behind.
Neuville's hopes of salvaging a solid result already appear in jeopardy after a difficult morning
After four stages, Neuville is already 41.8s off the lead and last of the Rally1 field.
“I don’t know what to say,” said an unusually despondent Neuville. “We are doing what we can, so…”
Evans, too, was hampered by road cleaning but had things far easier than his title rival. The Toyota driver is four places and 19.8s ahead of Neuville in sixth overall.
“It’s tricky out there,” Evans said. “Of course the cleaning is massive like we know.”
Adrien Fourmaux headed to Latvia keen to repeat the podium result he claimed in Poland three weeks ago, but currently lies seventh overall after four stages.
The Frenchman was slightly dejected at the end of SS3, confessing to struggling for confidence, but closed to within 0.3s of Evans overall on the final stage of the loop.
“To be fair that’s the best stage I’ve done since the beginning of the rally,” Fourmaux said. “I’m happy, I can reset myself and head as I was not in a good mood before.”
A confidence-drained Esapekka Lappi is 10.3 adrift of the M-Sport driver in eighth overall and over half a minute shy of the lead – struggling to find the pace he would have expected.
Esapekka Lappi also grazed an anti-cut device, leaving a mark on his Hyundai i20 N Rally1
“It just feels horrible all the time, I don’t know why,” he said. “I don’t know, I don’t have any f****** grip.”
Grégoire Munster confessed to struggling with the pacenotes on the first stage and then had to battle with his door opening on the second. But on SS4 he moved ahead of Neuville into ninth place, albeit by just 0.2s.
“I’ve not found it yet,” Munster said, “but there’s the second loop to improve.”
After losing 10.2s on Thursday’s superspecial stage, Sami Pajari already faced an uphill battle to wrest the WRC2 win from Oliver Solberg.
But he’s now been left with a mountain to climb after dropping 23.3s to Solberg across the morning – despite the Škoda driver not feeling at all happy or confident.
“It’s so slippery, sliding everywhere,” Solberg said. “I tried to stay in the line as good as I can, but it’s been so slow, I have no traction.
“But OK now I have a margin, so not a bad start to the rally.”
The Swede is sounding unwell however, and admitted to leaving his window open so that he could get some fresh air – even though that meant dust was creeping into the cockpit.
“At some of the junctions I had all the sand in my face!” he said. “But fresh air is better. A bit of gravel nobody died of before.”
Pajari, who is down in fourth, was at a loss to explain how he was losing so much time.
“I think the start position is making some difference but Oliver is anyway the second car, so it’s not making that big a difference. I’m a bit lost,” he confessed.
Solberg’s closest challenger is Toyota driver Mikko Heikkilä, but with a 23.8s deficit to Solberg, the Finn’s attention is on who is behind him. After four stages, Heikkilä has just 2.9s in hand over Josh McErlean.
