Category: WRC

The final day then of this incredibly fast rally. As with previous rounds the points for the final day would be given out based on the finishing positions from the first two days, and then the points handed out following the end of the results for Sunday.

The crews had 64km’s over four stages on the last day and the top three was Kalle, Seb and Martins, with Ott just a few seconds behind the Latvian.

First up then was SS17 Krogzemji 1 – 18.70 km and Seb was fastest from Kalle and Ott. Martins was just a couple of seconds behind the Estonian with the fourth best time and remained in third overall.

Into SS18 Mazilmāja 1 – 13.34 km and Ott was fastest in this one from Seb and Kalle. The rally leader was just managing his pace, but still very comfortable with a 40 second lead over Seb. Martins remained 12 seconds ahead of Ott and in third position.

Next up the penultimate stage, SS19 Krogzemji 2 – 18.70 km and Ott was fastest again from Kalle and Seb. The Estonian was now just 4.6 seconds behind Martins who was only ninth fastest following a missed junction.

Onto the final stage then, SS20 Mazilmāja 2[Power Stage] – 13.34 km and Ott was fastest from Seb, Thierry with Takamoto setting the same time as the Belgian and Elfyn fifth and taking the final power stage point. There was drama for Martins and Renars sadly as they suffered a problem with their transmission and they still had the full power in their Puma, just trying hard to get through the stage without losing too much time. Sadly, they dropped some much time they could only manage the slowest time, 33^rd and losing a minute 45 seconds to Ott as well. The Latvian crew fell to seventh overall but could definitely hold their heads high after a brilliant drive.

Let’s take a look at the final finishing positions and hear from the crews.

Final Overall Classification – Rally Latvia

1	K. Rovanperä	J. Halttunen	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid	2:31:47.6
2	S. Ogier	V. Landais	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid	+39.2
3	O. Tänak	M. Järveoja	Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid	+1:04.5
4	A. Fourmaux	A. Coria	Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid	+1:31.5
5	E. Evans	S. Martin	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid	+1:42.7
6	T. Katsuta	A. Johnston	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid	+2:07.0
7	M. Sesks	R. Francis	Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid	+2:45.4
8	T. Neuville	M. Wydaeghe	Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid	+2:46.4
9	G. Munster	L. Louka	Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid	+5:23.1
10	O. Solberg	E. Edmondson	Škoda Fabia RS	+8:37.9

 

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“It has been a really great weekend for us and for the team. Latvia is a special place for me and my career and almost a home rally in a way so it’s really cool, to win the first WRC rally here. A big thank you to the team: I think we were very strong here, maybe more than we expected. Together with Seb finishing second, we took some more really important points for the team. Thanks also to Jonne: I think we did a good job the whole weekend. We will enjoy this result now and then look forward to Rally Finland which will be another challenge.”

Elfyn Evans

“Today was all about trying to get as many extra points as we could. On the whole it was not going too badly for most of the day, but to just fall short by a few tenths of a second in the Power Stage was annoying. At least it’s been a weekend where we gained some points, which is better than nothing. We always want to do better but it’s been a difficult weekend with the road cleaning, and we were always a bit on the back foot from there. Now we’ll look forward to Rally Finland which is always an enjoyable event.”

Sébastien Ogier

“I’m very pleased: a one-two was the target we wanted to achieve for the team this weekend. We’ve made a very positive step for the manufacturers’ championship. Unfortunately, today these two tenths didn’t go our way, a bit like in Sardinia, but I gave it my all and have no regrets. Kalle was untouchable this weekend, so very well done to him. On my side, I had a lot of fun in the car, and I’m pleased with my performance because it’s been almost three years since I’ve competed in this kind of very fast rally, and it looks like I still have some good speed.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“This rally was hard until the very end. The stages were very nice to drive, and I really enjoyed the feeling in the car. But there were many new and different things to manage and unfortunately, I made the mistake in a chicane yesterday which cost us a lot of time. I’m still disappointed about that but I just need to forget about it and move on to the next one. At least the speed and the confidence was, there so it’s been good preparation for Rally Finland and I’m looking forward to that.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“We can at least say today was a good day. In the end, Saturday was not too bad pace wise. We managed to get back into a rhythm after a difficult Friday, where we definitely had the wrong tyre choice and were struggling with the set up. Losing the brakes on Friday’s final stage meant we didn’t have a good starting position on Saturday, so it felt like the cards were not in our favour, but we have managed to take the absolute maximum from today. Finland is next, and one of my favourite events – those roads are made for rallies. Toyota will be very fast again, but we will give it our all – we are always full attack.”

Thierry Neuville

“We weren’t surprised to be as hampered as we were this weekend; I don’t have anything to add but I want to thank the team for being resilient and supporting me this weekend, which was very important. We will continue to fight as we have done since the start of the season. We have another fast rally coming up in Finland, but it shouldn’t be as bad as this weekend as the repeated stages will be a big change to Latvia. I won’t give up and I will continue to fight, but eight gravel rallies in a row is very challenging, and three fast events back-to-back – which are not the ones I have been stronger at in the past – only adds to this.”

Esapekka Lappi

“Sadly, we suffered an engine failure on that final stage, but at least it happens now and not earlier in the weekend. Our settings on Friday were completely wrong on all three cars, but all of us were on much better form yesterday after we made changes. I think we were misled by Poland and my preparation rally, which had much sandier surfaces, and we went the wrong way with the set-up. I think we now have a good base to start from for Finland, and I certainly look forward to it.”

 

M-Sport Ford WRT

Adrien Fourmaux

“I think it’s been another strong result for us, we’ve been fighting with Elfyn, Taka and Ott throughout the weekend. We missed out on a bit of performance on Friday morning, which maybe also affected us on Saturday with our road position. But generally, we can be pleased with what we’ve done.

“Mārtiņš has shown some really good pace as well as us, and we have shown that the car is competitive on these fast roads. I wanted to get some more points on Sunday, but we had some issues with the aero which didn’t help us, but we tried our best and its still good preparation for Finland.”

Mārtiņš Sesks

“This experience with M-Sport has been amazing, I was enjoying so much being here with the team. The team has become like a family now, we were really working shoulder to shoulder to get the result and I think we fit in well!”

Grégoire Munster

“Not the best event for us, we managed to show some pace on Friday afternoon, but from then on it became a bit more difficult. We wanted to change the set-up a bit for Saturday afternoon, but I damaged the aero on the landing of a jump, so that’s my bad.

“On Sunday we encountered some issues, which we’ll resolve for the next event. But it has been really good mileage which will hopefully help us on Rally Finland.”

William Creighton (Fifth WRC2)

“We’re super happy to get a strong result on our first fast gravel rally in the Fiesta Rally2. We have gained good experience this week and really enjoyed the sensation of these flat-out roads! Thanks to the MI Rally Academy for preparing me for the event, and M-Sport for all their hard work. We’re now looking ahead to Finland which is coming up very soon.”

Oliver Solberg (WRC2 Winner)

“This was a good result for us. We knew from the previous round in Poland that there are many fast drivers who like these quick gravel roads in WRC2 – I wanted to make a really strong start here to try to put a marker down.

“That started with a nice time on the Thursday night stage where we took 10 seconds from our nearest championship rival. Friday morning was tricky, it was so slippery in places with a lot of loose gravel around. We pushed and we pushed hard, and we were able to win the stages and make a good lead.

“Through Saturday and Sunday, we were trying to manage that gap and driving with a little bit in reserve. We had worked really hard to build this lead through the first day, we definitely didn’t want to throw it away with a mistake. It was a big relief to come through the final stage and take the win – it feels like quite a long time since our last maximum score in Sweden, so this one’s nice.

“The car was great, I have to say a big thanks to the whole team and to Elliott, who did his usual fantastic job.

“And, of course, I was happy to come back to Latvia. For me and my family it’s a special place to remember, this was where I started my career. It was cool to see some old friends and even remember some of the roads. I loved this one, it was a fun rally with some fantastic stages.

“With Poland and Latvia done, we’re now looking forward to the grandaddy of all the speed events and Finland in just over a week. I can’t wait.”

Summary

Well, what an incredible rally in Latvia, the 37^th country to hold a round of this championship. It was well organized, the fans behaved themselves and the stages were beautiful and quick!

In terms of the drive by Kalle and Jonne, their second win in a row is amazing. They made the most of their road position.

Seb and Vincent took second place, and some stage wins and in a strange way with the new points system scored more points than his winning teammate. The FIA and WRC will need to review this.

Ott and Martin had a number of problems on their way to third position – Brake problems and a banner across the stage on Saturday. They may have ultimately taken the position even without the problems with Martins Puma, and it was nice to hear his remarks at the end of the stage paying tribute to the Latvian crew.

Finally, Martins and Renars. What a fantastic drive by the Latvian crew, taking their first stage wins and almost taking a podium. I for one hope we shall see them again in a Puma soon!

Next round is the Grand Prix of Finland, Rally Finland!

The second full day of this rally got underway in bright sunshine just like the first day. Esapekka Lappi would open the road throughout the eight stages.

First up was SS9 Pilskalns – 18.87 km, the first of a number of stages that would only be run once. Kalle made the most of his start position and was fastest from Seb and Ott. The Estonian crews’ pace was impressive given their road position that put them ahead of the two crews that they were faster than. It just shows how good the 2019 world champions are at extracting pace from stages which are ‘sketchy’. They passed Adrien and Alex and were back into fifth overall.

Into SS10 Snēpele – 17.52 km and Kalle was again fastest from Ott and Elfyn. Ott was now just half a second behind Takamoto as well. Could they gain another position in the next stage? Elfyn and Scott were also closing on Adrien and Alex’s sixth place.

Next up was SS11 Īvande – 23.04 km and Ott’s pace took him and Martin to their first stage win of the weekend from Takamoto and Kalle. Martins was only seventh fastest and fell to third overall whilst Takamoto also dropped a position to fifth as Ott passed him.

The final morning stage, SS12 Vecpils 1 – 12.64 km would be the only stage run twice and Kalle was back to stage winning pace from Seb and Ott. Both Adrien and Elfyn gained a position on the leaderboard as Takamoto had a moment at one of the chicanes and nudged a tree on the exit. The result of this was that his Yaris suffered powersteering failure making it very hard to control the car and he dropped behind into seventh place.

After service SS13 Podnieki – 10.09 km was next up and Kalle was again fastest from Seb and Martins. This meant the Latvian crew would remain in third place as their closest challenger, Ott and Martin in their i20 would only be fifth fastest. Takamoto was back on the pace again and also faster than Thierry, just what Elfyn and the Toyota team needed now.

The second run of SS14 Vecpils 2 – 12.64 km would see some drama for two crews. First of all, Elfyn would run wide and take a stage side banner with him before finishing the stage. Next to finish was Ott, but then the stage was red flagged, and Ott had not finished the stage. It turned out that their Hyundai had come across a deflated arch in the road at the same point where Elfyn had gone off and this had become tangled up with the number eight Hyundai. Unsure how rally control had allowed this to happen and the three cars that had been affected with this in the stage were given notional times, those being Ott, Adrien and Takamoto. The stage was completed in the normal way with Kalle going fastest from Ott and Seb.

There was a stage win for Seb in SS15 Dinsdurbe – 6.64 km from Kalle and Takamoto. Further back, Adrien was driving well, making the most of his road position and edging away from Elfyn. Martins remained firmly in third overall and had a 6.3 second gap to Ott.

Just the short SS16 Liepāja City Stage – 2.56 km remained and Kalle was fastest from Takamoto and Thierry whilst Elfyn matched the time set by Thierry. There was more drama for Ott though as he could only manage the 29^th best time. The reason? Well on the jump in the stage something broke in the transmission and he lost around 14 seconds.

Let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.

Classification after Day Two

1 K. Rovanperä J. Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid 1:58:55.6 2 S. Ogier V. Landais Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid +42.5 3 M. Sesks R. Francis Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid +47.2 4 O. Tänak M. Järveoja Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid +1:08.0 5 A. Fourmaux A. Coria Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid +1:16.4 6 E. Evans S. Martin Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid +1:34.3 7 T. Katsuta A. Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid +1:46.0 8 T. Neuville M. Wydaeghe Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid +2:33.9 9 E. Lappi J. Ferm Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid +3:11.1 10 G. Munster L. Louka Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid +3:40.9

 

 

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“I’m really happy, we need to be pleased with what we did today. The feeling in the car was quite good, and overall the day was more enjoyable than yesterday. We didn’t need to push so hard to be honest, and we had no moments or surprises, so it was quite a clean day. Together with Seb we are set to score some really good and important points for the team, and of course we will try to get more tomorrow. We have a good starting place so we need to try and use it the best we can. It’s not easy when you’re leading and you also need to secure the overall win, but we’ll try to keep a good pace and do a good job.”

Elfyn Evans

“Overall, I’m not so pleased with today. The morning was not bad but not perfect either, and then the afternoon didn’t go as well as we would have liked. We missed a bit of speed, and it didn’t feel so good behind the wheel. I just struggled for rhythm and also had a wide moment which cost us vital seconds. At least we’re on for some points from Saturday and now we’ll turn our focus to having a good run tomorrow. Based on the speed we’ve had so far with our road position it won’t be easy, but we have to give it a go and take what we can from it.”

Sébastien Ogier

“We didn’t have a perfect day today, but we can be happy to be in second place. This morning I was not happy with my performance. I didn’t push enough and made some mistakes which cost me time. The afternoon was quite short, but it went better, I think we had stronger pace, and a little setup change helped me. Kalle has been on another planet this weekend but by being in second place tonight we reached our target of a one-two for the team. Of course, Sunday will also now be important with the points available, but the second pass especially could be challenging with pretty rutted conditions.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“This morning everything was working well, and we were able to fight and be close to the top times. Then in the last stage of the loop I made a stupid mistake in a chicane and did an overshoot. We could get back on the road but from the impact we lost the power steering and unfortunately, we lost quite a lot of time from this over the rest of the stage. It was not easy to go back out this afternoon with the same feeling, and the position at the end of the day is not what I wanted, but I’m enjoying and feeling confident with the car, and that’s important on these kind of roads.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“What a day. Probably after what happened in SS14, in the last stage we had a technical failure on landing, which seems to have broken the drive shaft and I couldn’t slow down anymore, but we were straight into a very slow corner – we had to use the hay bale to slow the car down. We definitely can’t say this is a very good weekend, as it had the potential to be so much better, but at least this part of the rally is done and tomorrow we start from scratch. We don’t need to focus on staying ahead but rather gaining as many points as possible from the event.”

Thierry Neuville

“We got through the day, making no mistakes, and managed to work on the car to see what we can improve. It was important to score those three points, which we need to secure tomorrow, but now we can take a bit more risk on Sunday as there is not much for us to lose. With only one repeated stage and lots of cleaning we did the best that we could today, and while it will still be challenging as third on the road tomorrow, we need to take everything we can from a weekend like this.”

Esapekka Lappi

“We discovered a lot of good things today – I would say it was definitely ten times better than yesterday, which was great for my confidence. I felt good inside the car, and it makes a difference to not feel uncertain all the time. We had much more grip than yesterday, so overall it has been a positive day. We have a base to work from now for both tomorrow and Finland, and I think we made some very interesting steps. Based on our experience today, having someone in front of us tomorrow will make a difference to our times on the stages.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“Today was about looking after the lead we made yesterday. The morning was tricky, the grip was changing quite a lot. If you were sliding too much or going off the line, it was fairly loose and abrasive and could use the tyres quickly. I was trying to drive a bit more conservatively.

“The stages were nice today, but you know me I would always like to be driving for longer! Elliott [Edmondson, co-driver] and I were sensible, and we know we have to do more of the same on Sunday. We want the points. It’s been nice to see the fans out there and the atmosphere around the event has been really enjoyable.

“I have good memories from competing in this country and I’m happy to be back.”

Sunday

The final day of action will see the crews tackle four stages and 64km’s. Can Martins and his co-driver Renars hang onto their podium, or will Ott come past them?

The first full day of action was fast and furious on these quick Latvian roads. The crews had seven stages to tackle, with three in the morning and four in the afternoon. Of course, Thierry and Martijn would open the road throughout the day. The interesting aspect of the day’s stages was that the afternoon would see two stages only run one time, making the Belgian’s task even more tricky as the championship leaders.

Of course, there was a stage run on Thursday evening and the top three after that stage was Kalle, Thierry and Seb.

Onto Friday’s action and first up was SS2 Milzkalne 1 – 4.99 km, a short sharp blast! Kalle was fastest from Seb and Takamoto. The top three overall was Kalle, Seb and Martins. Yep, the young Latvian in his Puma was on the pace and moved onto the podium positions.

What followed next in the longer SS3 Tukums 1 – 27.56 km will go down in history as the first stage win for Martins from Kalle and Ott. The Latvian crew were up into third overall, what an impressive drive! Ott was also on the move, gaining three positions and moving into fourth overall.

Next up was SS4 Andumi – 17.86 km and once again Martins was fastest from Kalle and Adrien. Further back, Gregoire passed Thierry and moved into ninth overall, whilst his championship challenger Elfyn was in sixth overall.

After the tyre fitting zone SS5 Milzkalne 2 – 4.99 km saw Seb take the stage from Takamoto and Kalle, with Martins setting the fifth fastest time. He remained in second overall, 3.7 seconds from Kalle. Adrien passed Elfyn in this one moving into sixth place, and he had his eye on the positions currently occupied by Takamoto and Ott.

Then it was back to SS6 Tukums 2 – 27.56 km and Kalle was fastest from Martins and Seb. Adrien was doing what he could to move further up the standings but was just being kept behind by Takamoto.

Into SS7 Strazde – 17.44 km and Kalle was again fastest from Martins and Seb, whilst Adrien was faster than Takamoto and edged a little closer to the Japanese driver, the gap just 1.6 seconds. Meanwhile Ott was having some technical problems with his brakes and was seventh quickest.

Time then for the final stage, SS8 Talsi – 20.52 km and Kalle was fastest from Takamoto and Gregoire. The Puma driver made a move up the leader board and into eighth place, whilst his teammate Adrien was up into fifth place as Ott continued to suffer with brake problems and both Takamoto and Adrien gained positions.

Let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.

Classification after Day One

1	K. Rovanperä	J. Halttunen	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid	1:08:44.5
2	M. Sesks	R. Francis	Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid	+15.7
3	S. Ogier	V. Landais	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid	+21.6
4	T. Katsuta	A. Johnston	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid	+33.2
5	A. Fourmaux	A. Coria	Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid	+38.5
6	O. Tänak	M. Järveoja	Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid	+38.8
7	E. Evans	S. Martin	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid	+52.7
8	G. Munster	L. Louka	Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid	+1:10.2
9	T. Neuville	M. Wydaeghe	Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid	+1:23.3
10	E. Lappi	J. Ferm	Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid	+1:27.4

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“It was quite a good day. I didn’t have the perfect feeling, but we made no mistakes and I think we did a good job. This morning I wasn’t feeling so confident in the car, and the conditions were quite slippery. It was hard to change much with only a tyre-fitting zone and not a proper service, but we tried to improve the car and push more for the afternoon, and we found a bit of a better feeling. We kept it clean, didn’t push too much when the feeling wasn’t the best and still some good times came. The tyre strategy was also really good. We need to try and find something for tomorrow to have more of a consistent feeling but otherwise it’s been good.”

Elfyn Evans

“It’s been an OK day for us. The road evolution was quite clear with every car that passed: there was a lot of loose gravel, more than in Poland, and that’s made it harder to fight with the drivers starting behind us. There was not a lot we could do about it, so we just had to focus on doing the best we could, try to stay in touch and improve our road position for tomorrow. The feeling in the car was OK and the driving was not too bad, so I don’t think there was a lot more time left to be found. Our position will be a bit better for tomorrow, and every place helps, so let’s see what’s possible.”

Sébastien Ogier

“I enjoyed it a lot today, it was good fun in the car after a couple of years for me without doing this kind of fast event. I’m also happy with the performance. We’ve seen a massive cleaning effect today and although we were not in the worst position on the road, we only had three cars in front of us, so it was also slippery for us in some moments. I felt good in the car and the pacenotes were good. It’s positive to be where we are tonight, and it’s been a good day for the team. We’re not really in a fight with Kalle, but it’s an interesting fight for second and we will do our best to carry on like this tomorrow.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“It went well today. The stages here in Latvia are nice and I’m enjoying them a lot. The roads all look quite similar and are hard to memorise, so I just needed to focus on the pacenotes, and they were working well. I enjoyed it in the car, it was feeling really good. This morning we tried a few things between the stages and found some positive steps: I just needed to be a bit more committed in my driving. In the afternoon it was difficult to manage the tyres over such a long loop, but still we were able to push in the final stage and gain a position which was good. So far it’s been much better than in Poland and I hope we can just continue like this.”

 

M-Sport Ford WRT

Martins Sesks

“We’ve done a pretty good job, two stage wins: I didn’t expect that, we just have to keep the focus for the next two days. We have shown that we have the speed. It’s incredible, but we still have two days to go, and we are still learning. It’s faster with the hybrid, and we have started to understand. It’s really fun!”

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“I was expecting to do better today, we were lacking speed quite a bit and we are not really where we expected to be at the end of the day. It was difficult to find a good balance; we have been trying to understand this all day, but we never found the sweet spot and that makes it hard to really nail it. We lost two places on that final stage so it will be tricky to fight for the podium, but those behind us are also quite close so we need to focus on managing the gap.”

Thierry Neuville

“A challenging day, but we weren’t expecting anything less before the rally started. We knew this was going to be our most difficult event of the season so far, and it is what it is. I tried to push hard, especially on that final stage, but I couldn’t do any more out there today.”

Esapekka Lappi

“A very difficult day. We struggled all day with no grip, I felt we were missing a lot of traction, and we were overheating the tyres because we were just spinning them around, causing a lot of tyre wear. I was trying so hard, but we had no speed. Let’s try to change something for tomorrow.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“It’s been a good day. On the first loop in the morning, the road was quite loose and we were sliding in some places – in the long stage (SS3, Tukums 1, 27.56km) there were some quite big slides.

“I was pushing quite hard and taking some risks to try to build a lead and then for the afternoon it was about controlling the tyres and trying to take care of things. The driving has been good today and so has the feeling in the car. There was only a remote tyre zone, no proper service at lunchtime – sometimes you don’t take the full attack when it’s like this.

“We were a little bit careful in the last stage, there was some Tarmac in the beginning and I didn’t want to take any risks that could cost us all the work we have done so far.”

Saturday

The second full day of the rally will see eight stages and 104km’s, with six stages only run one time.

Who will occupy the podium positions at the end of the day?

Time for the eighth round of this season’s championship as the crews move onto the roads of Latvia. Still leading the way in the championship standings are Thierry and Martijn for Hyundai Motorsport.

Elfyn and Scott returned to second in the championship standings after the previous round in Poland following their podium finish and of course Ott and Martin had their problem with wildlife meaning they only scored points on Sunday and are third in the standings.

Let’s take a look at the stages and hear from the drivers.

Weekend at a Glance

Rally Latvia commences on Thursday morning with a Shakedown, followed by SS1 Bikernieki Track (11.13km) in the evening.

Friday, the longest day of the weekend, will feature eight stages, with only two remote tyre fitting zones splitting the 120.92km competitive distance.

Saturday will see crews tackle eight stages, six of which are contested only once, meaning crews will be venturing into the unknown for most of the day.

All eyes will be on the teams entering Sunday’s running, as the final service for the weekend will take place on Saturday evening, leaving a 64.08km distance to compete on the closing day of the event.

Hyundai Motorsport

Thierry Neuville

“Rally Latvia is going to be another challenging rally, and it is always more difficult when you are first on the road and the first to discover the conditions. We know the surface of the event is very similar to Estonia, maybe even a bit faster, but Poland has helped us to prepare for a fast rally after a series of slower, more technical events. We’ve been watching a lot of onboard footage from other championships to learn the characteristics, the itinerary, and start to get a feel for tyre choices and set-up. I’m mainly focused on my two main championship rivals and trying to take more points from them, but it will be difficult – the cleaning will be massive, some stages aren’t repeated, and a lot of fast part-time drivers will be there, so while our expectations are not so high our motivation is to finish ahead of our rivals is strong.”

Ott Tänak

“I like driving these types of profiles, but while I have competed at this event in the past, I haven’t been there for over ten years. The roads are very similar to what we have seen in previous rounds such as Poland, where we had a very successful Sunday, and surface-wise it is comparable to our home event in Estonia. We weren’t able to demonstrate our full potential in Poland after our retirement on Friday, so hopefully Latvia will be a smoother ride. It is hard to say what to expect from the weekend, but we will try to extract the most out of Rally Latvia.”

Esapekka Lappi

“We competed at Rally Latvia in 2014, however it was a winter event at that time, so we won’t be able to transfer so much of our experience from so long ago. I’ve been studying a lot of videos and onboards from recent years, as well as discussing the characteristics and potential setup of the car with our engineer. Our Lithuanian rally will be very helpful, as seat time is crucial to get used to high-speed roads, and our last event was in Kenya – a very different rally to Latvia. We’re targeting the podium – everything is possible at an event like this.”

 

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Elfyn Evans

“I’m looking forward to seeing what Rally Latvia is all about. On paper it could be quite similar in character to Rally Poland as another fast gravel event, but I’m sure that it will have its own specific challenges and we have to discover those and see the stages for ourselves when we get there. We had a pretty good feeling with the car in Poland and we hope to be able to carry that forward, and I believe we can still build upon what we learned that weekend. Hopefully we can continue our good momentum in the championship, enjoy the event and come away with some good points at the finish.”

Sébastien Ogier

“It was quite unfortunate what happened during our preparations in Poland. Now after some rest, and some good help from my medical team, I could recover pretty quickly and I’m looking forward to being back in a rally car in Latvia. The challenge of a new rally is generally something I like and that’s one of the reasons we added this event to our programme. The target for us will be to find the feeling for the very high-speed roads quickly after missing Poland, but I’m always excited for a new challenge and let’s see what we can do.”

Kalle Rovanperä

“I’m really looking forward to go back to Latvia. I have so many good memories from my early days there and I hope to see many friends and familiar faces next week. It will be a fast rally: a bit of a mix between Poland and Estonia in terms of character. I’m sure it will be really spectacular to watch and a big fight on the stages. It’s been seven years since I last drove in Latvia, so I don’t think that experience will count for much and I will be preparing for it like any new rally. Poland went well even in the strange circumstances we had, and I hope we can carry on the good feeling, and that with better preparation we can do a good job.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“It’s going to be nice to go back to Latvia. My biggest memory from my last rally there is of probably the biggest crash of my career. It was one of my first ever rallies in Europe, so it was a long time ago and it will be a completely different story now. It’s going to be a totally new rally for most of the drivers, including myself, and I want to set a high target for the weekend. It will be a similarly fast rally to Poland, and I want to take the positives from there onto Latvia. We need to prepare as well as we can, and I’ve been looking at everything together with the team to improve and be better there.”

 

M-Sport Ford WRT

Adrien Fourmaux

“Latvia rally will be the second of the three fast gravel rallies this season, and I don’t really know what to expect! There aren’t as many jumps as in Poland, but it’s still a really fast rally with a loose surface on the top. After the great result we had in Poland, we want to try and match that and even better it if we can. It’s going to be interesting to see where we are when it’s a new rally for nearly everybody.”

Grégoire Munster

“I’m looking forward to Latvia as we found some good pace in Poland; the roads are quite similar here, just with a harder surface, but it’s still a very fast event in the fields and the forest. We will also have a good starting position, so we will try to benefit from that on the first day. I’m just excited to get started.”

Mārtiņš Sesks

“After one day of testing, there’s still a lot to find out about what we can do with this extra speed of hybrid. We are well aware that on better-known roads, our attention to pacenote details has to be two times more. But it’s clear that our country’s first-ever WRC round is going to be a thrilling mix of speed and challenges – and that’s exactly what gets our hearts racing!”

William Creighton

“Latvia will provide a real change of pace from the first half of the season – our first proper fast gravel rally in a Rally2 car. The plan is to put the things we’ve learnt over the first half of the season to good use, but with a new profile of stages it will no doubt take a bit of learning from my side. All the prep is done now – I just want to approach the rally relaxed, enjoy it and get the best out of myself!”

 

WRC2

Oliver Solberg

“Latvia is where I started my career, I have some incredible memories from competing in this country when I was young and, of course, from the win in 2019. To make history like that, to become the youngest driver ever to win in ERC was something amazing for me back then – I never forget that one.

“Coming back to Latvia is really nice. The people and the support is very special here – and so are the roads. I remember having a lot of fun on these roads and I’m sure that’s going to be the same next week. Of course, everything is quite a bit more serious now, we are going to Liepāja chasing points in WRC2 and there’s a world championship to be won.

“I’m hoping we can settle in and find a good feeling straight away. The roads should give more support, I don’t think they will be so soft or rutted on the second pass. And, for sure, I think they will be as fast as the last round.

“Poland was tough, but we made second in the end. This time I really want to win. We have a pretty good record on these fast rallies and my win [among Rally2 cars] and sixth overall in Finland last year is definitely one of the highlights of my career so far. Another one of those would suit Elliott [Edmondson, co-driver] and me very well!”

Summary

It will be interesting to see who gets on the pace from the start. For the championship leaders it will be a case of damage limitation as they have to sweep the road throughout Friday’s stages.

Anyone of the top drivers could stand on the podium. Standby for action!

The final day then of this rally, the seventh round of this year championship. What would the stages bring to the results at the end of the rally and ultimately the championship standings?

Just 63 km’s over four remaining stages stood in the way for the crews to navigate. Of course, Ott and Martin returned to the action and were looking to fight for the maximum points available on the final day given the points structure.

First up then was SS16 Gmina Mrągowo 1 – 20.80 km and Ott was incredibly committed through this, setting such a fast time that even the later runners would not beat it. Kalle came closest but was still 1.2 off the time set by the Estonian crew, whilst Elfyn was third and moved into second overall as well. There was some drama for former rally leader Andreas as he took a hit on the rear right of his i20 when going through the narrow section of the stage, damaging the tyre and this led the bodywork to be damaged by the flailing rubber. He lost two positions, falling behind Adrien who was driving so well, the Frenchman was now into third overall.

Next was SS17 Mikołajki 1 – 10.73 km and Ott was fastest again from Adrien and Thierry, just nine tenths of a second covering the top three. The other news from this stage was that Thierry moved ahead of Andreas and the Belgian was now in fourth overall.

Onto the penultimate stage then, SS18 Gmina Mrągowo 2 – 20.80 km and this time it was rally leader Kalle that was fastest from Ott and Adrien third, again just 1.8 seconds covering the top three again. Andreas also dropped a further position, falling behind Martins, the Latvian now back into fifth place overall.

It was time then for the final stage, SS19 Mikołajki 2[Power Stage] – 10.73 km and Ott set the early pace before Thierry came through and beat his teammate’s time. Next to finish was Adrien who was ahead of Elfyn in the Sunday standings, and he would have a strong finish to the rally. Unfortunately, Elfyn had yet another puncture and after setting a good pace earlier in the stage there was a rock on the line which damaged the tyre on his GR Yaris. The Welshman lost more time and was only seventh fastest in the stage. The top five was Thierry, Ott, Kalle, Adrien and Takamoto.

Meanwhile Kalle and Jonne had taken victory for Toyota, their thirteen of their career, with Elfyn and Scott taking second position and Adrien with co-driver Alex was third for M-Sport Ford.

Let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.

Final Overall Classification – Rally Poland

1	K. Rovanperä	J. Halttunen	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid	2:33:07.6
2	E. Evans	S. Martin	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid	+28.3
3	A. Fourmaux	A. Coria	Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid	+42.7
4	T. Neuville	M. Wydaeghe	Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid	+1:10.8
5	M. Sesks	R. Francis	Ford Puma Rally1	+1:47.0
6	A. Mikkelsen	T. Eriksen	Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid	+2:16.6
7	G. Munster	L. Louka	Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid	+2:18.0
8	T. Katsuta	A. Johnston	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid	+2:26.7
9	S. Pajari	E. Mälkönen	Toyota GR Yaris Rally2	+7:50.7
10	O. Solberg	E. Edmondson	Škoda Fabia RS	+8:12.7

 

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“It has been an amazing week and quite a tough week: we have been working hard and I feel quite tired now! With the limited preparation we had, it was not so easy on this kind of fast rally where you need to keep pushing. I think we did everything we could, working all the time with the tight schedule that we had and keeping to our plan on the stages, and it all paid off in the end. Sunday was still an important day with many kilometres and technical stages. We tried to keep the pace we had yesterday, be safe enough to bring home the win but also grab some more points. At the finish we managed to bring quite a lot of points for the team, which was the aim for us when we got the call from the team on Tuesday, so I think it was a good idea to come!”

Elfyn Evans

“At the end of the rally our overall position is good. The Sunday points are almost just as important, and we tried to get as many as we could today. It was all going OK, but unfortunately, we had an issue in the Power Stage with a puncture: there was a rock on the line and there was not a lot I could do. We only lost a few seconds, but with this points system a small issue like that can penalise you a lot, so it was disappointing to finish the rally this way. Our speed this weekend was not bad: Friday was good with the road position we had and Saturday was also going well until the tyre issue. It’s definitely the case that the feeling in the car is much better than in the previous rallies. We need to carry that forward, build on what we learned here and look to do a good job in Latvia.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“Congratulations Kalle, Jonne and the whole team for this result. For me, it has been a difficult rally. I was struggling a lot on Friday morning, and this cost me afterwards, with a more difficult starting position for Saturday and Sunday. It was hard to do much on this final day and get the good result we wanted for the team. At the same time, I was learning a lot about how to drive well in this kind of condition. We had some good sections and some good feelings, and we need to bring that to the next rally in Latvia, and also improve the things that were not so good so that we can be better there.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Thierry Neuville

“Mission accomplished. We knew this event would be difficult for us, but we kept the motivation high. There was no reason to push more than what we felt comfortable with considering we were first on the road on Friday and didn’t have great conditions on Saturday. There was no real chance for us to work on the set-up, so I just had to follow my gut and push hard for the Power Stage. We were balancing the risks we could take and the speed we needed to go, but in the end, we take home some good points and look forward to what is to come.”

Andreas Mikkelsen

“There are a lot of positives to take from this weekend. Had we not had the tyre off the rim, I think we could have kept the pressure on Kalle and be fighting for the podium. I felt we had a bit of bad luck as we had been using the banks tactically this rally to keep up the speed through the corners, but it is what it is. After that, it was just about getting the car to the finish to secure the points for the team.”

Ott Tänak

“We did everything we could today, but it is obviously a huge shame our weekend finished so early so we could not know where we could be. I’m sure we had the pace to compete, I had an OK feeling in the car and felt fine, so I am pretty sure the basis is there. Obviously, our road position for the past two days has made it difficult to make a conclusion; we need to carry on and hopefully improve a bit in between now and Latvia and see how we go there.”

 

M-Sport Ford WRT

Adrien Fourmaux

“For sure I have enjoyed my first time competing in Poland! The stages here are truly incredible, so unbelievably fast, and we can be really happy with the pace we’ve shown.

“It’s really encouraging to get a podium on the first of three fast gravel rallies, so I’m looking forward to Latvia and Finland. We’ve had three third places this year already, so now the goal is to reach for the top two positions.”

Mārtiņš Sesks

“It was an incredible weekend. Every first time is very special, as I am so thankful for this opportunity to M-Sport, WRC Promoter, Rally Latvia, and our partners. We really did not expect to finish fifth. But I enjoyed every second of this active learning.”

Grégoire Munster

“We are quite satisfied with our pace, and we had our best stage result in stage four, being second fastest. The gap compared to the fastest has been reduced, so it is a step forward. We learned a lot this weekend that we can carry into Rally Latvia, where we will try to benefit from our start position and have a good result.

“We also managed to keep Takamoto Katsuta behind, who is a far more experienced driver and who is normally performing well on these types of rallies. We also missed out on a point on the Power Stage by a couple of seconds, but overall I’m happy about the weekend.”

 

WRC2

Oliver Solberg

““I’m happy with this result. Of course, you know me, I always want to win, but given the conditions and the place on the road and everything else, I think second here is as good as we could have hoped for and expected. “Running further up in the order on Friday, the road was quite dirty, and it was hard to find a clean line. Driving in those kind of conditions, there’s not so much grip around and it can be difficult to find confidence – especially when the roads are high-speed and narrow.

“Friday was a tough one. Saturday was better, the car was giving me a bit more confidence and things working more as we like it. We went into Saturday in fifth place and came out in second with some stage wins – I was happy with that.

“For the final day it was a little bit more of the same, the stages weren’t quite so fast – a bit more twisty and technical. We were around 30 seconds off the lead, and it wouldn’t have made sense to push all-out for the win. We came here needing some good points and we’ve done that. If I’m completely honest, I’m a bit disappointed. We won Royal Rally before this, and I was feeling good for the fast rallies.

“Rally Poland is definitely a little bit different to any event I’ve done before, with the soft surface and the ruts and it did take us a while to dial the car in. From here we go to Latvia for another fast event – I know those roads a little bit more, so I’m really looking forward to being back out in the Škoda in just over two weeks.”

 

Summary

Well, what a return to Poland. Let’s deal with the spectator problems first and this was the original reason this event was left off the calendar for the last seven years, with spectators standing in dangerous places in the last time this round was in the WRC in 2017. Sadly, on Friday and Saturday we did see a return of some people behaving in the same way and this led to some stages being red flagged, delayed and some crews being given notional times.

Let’s have a chat then about the top three.

First up Kalle and Jonne. What a drive from the champions. Receiving a call on Tuesday asking them to come and compete after the incident involving Seb and Vincent during recce and virtually zero preparation with special dispensation to complete a short recce after shakedown on Thursday, to then come through and take victory is incredibly amazing.

 

Next up their teammates Elfyn and Scott. They showed great pace all weekend, overcame two tyre failures to finish on the podium 28 seconds from the winner, who knows what would have happened? They have however closed the gap to Thierry and Martijn in the fight for this season’s championship, which is a good thing. They’ll hope that they can do the same thing in Latvia next time out.

 

It was another great drive from Adrien and Alex to a third podium of the season. They set a few top three times on a rally which they had never competed at before and delivered a consistent drive, avoiding any problems. It is fantastic to see the young crew really delivering and leading M-Sport Ford’s charge this year. Long may it continue.

 

Here’s the points standings –

2024 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 7

1	T. Neuville	136
2	E. Evans	121
3	O. Tänak	115
4	S. Ogier	92
5	A. Fourmaux	91
6	K. Rovanperä	63
7	T. Katsuta	58
8	A. Mikkelsen	29
9	D. Sordo	27
10	E. Lappi	23

 

2024 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After round 7

1	Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team	311
2	Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team	301
3	M-Sport Ford World Rally Team	156

 

Next up is Rally Latvia taking place from the 18^th to the 21 of July, giving the teams and crews time to prepare. Look out for my preview ahead of that weekend.

The second full day of this rally would have 124km’s over seven stages. Could Andreas hold on to his lead or would the Toyota duo of Kalle and Elfyn move past the Hyundai crew? Of course, Ott and Martin would return to the action and open the road throughout the day.

Well, first up was SS9 Świętajno 1 – 18.50 km and Kalle was fastest from Elfyn and Andreas. The Finns pace brought the gap to Andreas down to just half a tenth of a second in their battle over the lead and amazingly Elfyn was only another 1.1 seconds back in third.

The slightly longer SS10 Gołdap 1 – 19.90 km was again won by Kalle from Elfyn this time, whilst the former leader Andreas fell to third place, 4.6 seconds behind the new leader. Thierry was third fastest in the stage and gained one place, moving into sixth overall.

Into SS11 Czarne 1 – 22.40 km, the longest stage of the day and Andreas hit back with the fastest time from Elfyn and Kalle and with the two crews behind the leader going faster, the lead which Kalle held was reduced to just 2.1 between them all.

The short SS12 Mikołajki Arena 3 – 2.50 km and Kalle was fastest from Thierry and Adrien. Elfyn was just four tenths of a second behind his teammate.

After the service break next was SS13 Świętajno 2 – 18.50 km and Kalle was fastest again from Andreas, whilst Elfyn had a rear tyre delaminate, losing all the tread but not fully exploding. The Welshman lost 7 seconds in the final sector of the stage and was now behind Andreas and in third.

Just two stages left then to decide the finishing positions at the end of Saturday and the first of these was SS14 Gołdap 2 – 19.90 km. Kalle was again fastest from Thierry this time and Andreas third. Elfyn still held third but was now 13.3 seconds from Kalle. Further back, Thierry, with his great pace was now just 2.4 seconds behind Martins who had driven brilliantly all day and was still holding fifth overall.

Time then for the final stage of the day, SS15 Czarne 2 – 22.40 km and Kalle made it six stage wins from seven, with Elfyn second fastest and Andreas third. The cool news was that Martins held off Thierry for fifth place at the end by just one tenth of a second. There were moments for both of the crews in this one meaning it could have gone either way.

Let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.

Classification after Day Two

1 K. Rovanperä J. Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid 2:00:44.0 2 A. Mikkelsen T. Eriksen Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid +9.4 3 E. Evans S. Martin Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid +16.1 4 A. Fourmaux A. Coria Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid +37.0 5 M. Sesks R. Francis Ford Puma Rally1 +58.2 6 T. Neuville M. Wydaeghe Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid +58.3 7 G. Munster L. Louka Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid +1:24.5 8 T. Katsuta A. Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid +1:41.9 9 S. Pajari E. Mälkönen Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 +5:46.5 10 O. Solberg E. Edmondson Škoda Fabia RS +6:12.8

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“I tried my best the whole day. The morning loop was better than yesterday, but it was still tricky like expected for us with some small surprises. I would have wanted to be a bit faster there, but it was a good fight. The afternoons are definitely more enjoyable, as I know better what’s coming and can drive with more of a normal pace and feeling about the stages. Nothing is certain yet. The gap is small for tomorrow, which is still quite a long day with a different type of stages. I think it will be tougher than today, maybe the toughest day for me in terms of our preparation and pacenotes: we need to work a lot this evening and try to be quick tomorrow. I don’t think it’s going to be easy, but we’ll keep trying our best.”

Elfyn Evans

“It’s been a big fight out there today, especially this morning when it was all quite tight. It was a clean morning from our side, and we were feeling pretty good in the car. Unfortunately, we had a setback with the tyre issue in the first stage of the afternoon. It was very sudden, and I wasn’t sure what had happened at first. but we just lost the tread completely. We lost a bit of time, and when it’s this tight, that was pretty much the end of the fight for today. We tried what we could but couldn’t claw back the time. Still, overall, it’s been a better weekend for us up to this point. Tomorrow is a new day with a lot of points up for grabs. We’ve got to try and keep a good rhythm, keep doing what we’ve been doing all weekend, and see what that brings.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“The feeling in the car today was much better than yesterday. The only frustrating thing is that the times were not so good, but I think this was coming from the conditions that we had with our road position. They were very difficult, especially during the second loop in the afternoon, running first on the road with a lot of cleaning. Even under braking it was difficult to know how much grip there was because there was a lot of sand in the ruts. When it was wide and high-speed without so many ruts, we could have similar split times to the leaders, but when it was narrow and rutted, I was losing a lot of time. Tomorrow I’ll try to do my best and improve my driving and try to find more confidence to push in the next two rallies.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Andreas Mikkelsen

“I think we have to be happy with our day, we drove really well today. Rovanperä is obviously very fast, so we have to take big risks. I took the risks I was willing to take knowing the car still has to finish for the points, so I was happy with the outcome. We used a slightly different strategy on the second loop with some more hard tyres, and on the first stage after service this looked like a good choice, but on the second and third stage the wear was not so high. Tomorrow, we need to keep the pressure on Rovanperä, there are 60 kilometres to do tomorrow so it’s a decent day with some tricky stages, so if we push it we can gain a lot of time. We will discuss it as a team and tomorrow we will see.”

Thierry Neuville

“We pushed hard across every stage today trying to catch the next two positions; we got Gregoire very quickly and we knew that if we wanted to catch Martins, we had to push more this afternoon. Considering there was still a lot of cleaning this afternoon, I think we have done a really good job. I am satisfied but really disappointed for that 0.1, I lost it in one corner and missed a few tenths there. We are struggling here a bit this weekend, but it is expected being first on the road, we knew it would be difficult being sixth overnight. The stages are really fast, they can be really fun when you are driving but then you look at the stage times and it’s not quite the same. Tomorrow we will push even harder and hope to close that 0.1 second gap to make it into the top five and bring home as many points as we can from Super Sunday.”

Ott Tänak

“Together with the team we decided to retire for the day after midday service in order to fully focus on tomorrow. Unfortunately, after yesterday we had to open the road today which is obviously pretty challenging here. We have still been trying to get into the rhythm for tomorrow where we can score ourselves some good points. Yesterday our running was very limited so our time on the stages this morning was important in understanding the speed and adjust to it so hopefully we can push for some Super Sunday points.”

 

WRC2

Oliver Solberg

“Generally, the day has been a little bit better today,” said the Monster energy athlete. “I think we’ve been in the top-three [WRC2] times all day, which has allowed us to climb back up a little bit.

“Tomorrow is going to be a big fight, with [Robert] Virves still quite close behind us. In the last stage today, me and Elliott [Edmondson, co-driver] were just giving it everything. We were pushing like hell. We cannot do that all day tomorrow, but let’s see where we are and what the times are like.”

 

Summary

Well, what a day. Apart from a brief interruption with some spectators on the first stage just being in the wrong places.

What does Sunday hold for the crews then? Well, there are four stages with 63km’s before the end of the rally. Who will walk away with the top points from Sunday and can Kalle take the win, or will either Elfyn or Andreas move back up?

After the action got underway with the short stage on Thursday evening, the first full day of action got going with stage two. Ott held the lead for Hyundai with his teammate Thierry second and Elfyn was third after Thursday’s stage.

Into the first stage then, SS2 Stańczyki 1 – 29.40 km and there was early amazing pace from Ott and Martin who despite being second on the road were setting stage winning pace. Unfortunately, they collided with a deer on the stage heavily damaging the front of their i20 and putting them out for the day. The big news was that Andreas was fastest from Martin Sesks who was in the non-hybrid Puma and Kalle third fastest. All three crews gained positions and moved into the top three overall.

Next up was SS3 Wieliczki 1 – 12.90 km and it was a surprise to see Thierry set the fastest time from Elfyn, but the stage was actually cancelled after they completed. The reason? Some spectators were not standing in the right places, and it was not safe to continue. All the other crews were given a notional time. Elfyn gained one position and moved into third overall.

Onto SS4 Olecko 1 – 13.20 km and Andreas was showing great pace, winning the stage from Gregoire and Elfyn. It was interesting to see Martin maintain such great pace holding second overall from Elfyn who was 4.5 seconds behind the Latvian.

After the tyre fitting zone the second run of SS5 Stańczyki 2 – 29.40 km and Kalle found his way to the fastest time with Elfyn second and Martin third. The decision by Toyota and their crews to run hard tyres in this one was inspired as they saw those who ran the softs all round fall back, but the way to run them was highlighted by Andreas who had the two softs on the rear and the hards on the front. The Norwegian was finding the balance tricky and lost 14.4 seconds. Kalle emerged in the lead, just two tenths ahead.

The following stage, SS6 Wieliczki 2 – 12.90 km was again taken by Thierry with Elfyn and Takamoto setting the same time for joint second. Once again, we saw a notional time given as the stage was red flagged due to spectators in the wrong places again, just like earlier. The top two changed again as Andreas and Elfyn moved into the top two positions.

The final proper stage of the day, SS7 Olecko 2 – 13.20 km and Adrien won the stage with Elfyn and Andreas second fastest. Once again, the spectators ruined things by crossing the stage and the stage was stopped and then later cancelled.

The final stage then of the day, SS8 Mikołajki Arena 2 – 2.50 km was won by Takamoto and Kalle was second with the same time as his teammate and Andreas was third.

Let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.

Classification after Day One

1   A. Mikkelsen T. Eriksen Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid 59:43.7

2   K. Rovanperä J. Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid +1.8

3   E. Evans S. Martin Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid +2.0

4   A. Fourmaux A. Coria Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid +7.5

5   M. Sesks R. Francis Ford Puma Rally1 +7.7

6   G. Munster L. Louka Ford Puma Rally1 Hybrid +21.3

7   T. Neuville M. Wydaeghe Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid +29.8

8   T. Katsuta A. Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid +32.3

9    S. Pajari E. Mälkönen Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 +2:15.6

10 K. Kajetanowicz M. Szczepaniak Škoda Fabia RS +2:24.5

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Andreas Mikkelsen

“It has been a good day at Rally Poland. It is a shame we couldn’t do more stages, but all in all a positive day. I was far too cautious on the long stage after mid-day service: I am used to the Rally2 cars where you have to be really careful in the ruts, but with these tyres you can just throw the car in. It’s one of the learnings I can take advantage of moving forward; I love this event, and I want to bring a fight to the guys tomorrow. It will be a proper battle, with no road cleaning and the top guys starting in front of me, so a completely different day to today.”

Thierry Neuville

“A really tough and challenging day. The temperature in the car was crazy, and we’re pretty exhausted after a long Friday. Let’s see what the weather will do overnight – if it’s dry, it won’t be much easier than it was today, but we could have more chances to catch positions if it rains. It could be an interesting day with wet and slippery conditions, but today we made the most out of the situation we faced.”

Ott Tänak

“It was really bad luck for us today. Looking back at the onboard, we were on a straight section but the time between the deer emerging from the bush and the impact was only 0.26 seconds. There was no time to react and avoid the situation. The opening stage with very loose gravel wasn’t the easiest, but we felt okay in the car for those first kilometres. It is disappointing that we finished early, and we will come back fighting, however it isn’t going to be easy. We can see that opening the road is losing a lot of time, so it will be a challenging task to score those Super Sunday points, but we will do our best for sure.”

 

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“This morning everything was quite tricky for me given our preparation, even more than I was expecting. With the preparation time we had, and after such a long time without driving a fast rally or even a test, it’s not been easy to make good and precise pacenotes for these speeds. I just tried to find a pace, where I was comfortable and to finish the loop without any mistakes. Then in the afternoon we could show our pace straightaway, and it was more enjoyable. I think we did all we could, it was a clean day with no mistakes and our position is not bad tonight considering everything. Tomorrow, I hope we can be stronger in the first pass and let’s see what we can do.”

Elfyn Evans

“We had quite an OK start this morning, getting used to these high-speed stages. The grip was quite changeable and difficult to judge, but everything was working fine in the car and the speed was OK considering the road position and the cleaning that we had to do. This afternoon was pretty similar, but we were able to get closer to the front, and on the whole it’s been a pretty clean day with no mistakes. Let’s see what’s possible tomorrow – and what the weather does overnight, because if it rains a lot that will obviously make things less straightforward.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“In the morning loop, I was struggling quite a lot. I think I went in the wrong direction with the car setup after my test. It was not really feeling good or consistent, it was hard to have trust and keep a good pace, and we were losing a lot of time. But with the help of the engineers, we changed what we could during the day, and it started to feel better in the afternoon. We’ve found the right direction, and tonight we can change even more to make it better tomorrow. Our road position might be more difficult if it’s dry, but the weather is uncertain: hopefully for me it rains and that could be better for us.”

 

WRC2

Oliver Solberg

“It’s been a tough day,” said the Škoda driver. “We’ve struggled for confidence and some grip today. The surface has been really tricky, it’s been cleaning and getting quicker and quicker for the cars behind. We will work with the team for the set-up on the car tonight and let’s go again in the morning.”

Summary

Well, it was a tricky day out there for the crews and, but more so for the organisers. Having to stop stages when spectators are standing in dangerous places or even walking on the live stage is not very good and is one of the original reasons that the event was not selected for a number of seasons after the 2017 event.

They will not want that to continue during the Saturday’s stages which will see the crews tackle 124km’s over seven stages.

The championship moved to the next round and a return to Polish roads for the first time since 2017. On that occasion Thierry was victorious from former teammate Hayden and Seb Ogier was third, that being the first year the Frenchman was driving at M-Sport Ford.

The rally has still been run as part of the European championship in the seasons between the last WRC round and this year.

The big news to report on before we talk about the stages and hear from the drivers is that during recce earlier this week Seb and co-driver Vincent were involved in a road crash with a normal vehicle and as a result, they are not going to take part. Instead Kalle and Jonne have been allowed to take their place and will drive the rally for Toyota.

Let’s hear from the drivers then and take a look at the stages.

Hyundai Motorsport

Thierry Neuville

“Rally Poland is an event that I really enjoy. As a fast gravel rally with some prominent jumps and crests, the stages can be really exciting, and we can have a lot of fun. We need to make sure that we have the right setup and good pace notes from the start, as we haven’t done any testing on Polish roads. In terms of setup, we need a lot of grip and traction, but I don’t think it will be hugely different to other gravel rallies we have competed in this season. Starting first could be a huge advantage or disadvantage depending on how much cleaning of the road we will be doing, but we will have to see when we get there. We expect to be consistent and fast to bring home some decent points for all three championships.”

Ott Tänak

“My memories of Poland are great – it’s a rally that I have enjoyed a lot. It has very fast, demanding roads that can change massively depending on the weather, but I am really looking forward to it. I really like the profile of this event, and it’s similar to where I learnt to drive in Estonia. I was really close to winning my first ever rally in Poland, but it didn’t happen. Since then, I have finished on the podium a few times, so I know I can perform well but still have some room for improvement. Hopefully we can find a good feeling in the car to give us the amount of confidence needed to push across the whole weekend.”

Andreas Mikkelsen

“I am very excited to be back with the team in Poland after their recent success in both Portugal and Sardinia. Rally Poland is a super-fast event with a sandy surface, so you can make the most of the ruts in a stable and fast car like ours. I haven’t driven the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 competitively on gravel yet, but with two days in the car before the event I am hoping to find the right setup for the weekend there so I can be ready to take my fight to the front of the field. Road position is also crucial at this event and very dependent on the weather, so it will play a major part in my weekend. I am hoping to be fighting for the important positions throughout the weekend. I have had two podiums and a win here and I would like to replicate these good results once again.”

 

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Elfyn Evans

“After a difficult couple of rallies for us, we’re definitely hoping to find better form on these faster rallies coming up. Even though they’re quite similar in character, they will each have their own challenges. The overriding memory of Rally Poland from the past is that it’s a pretty fast rally: it will definitely be a change of pace from the last event in Sardinia. It’s also a rally where the roads tended to deteriorate quite a lot, so the second pass can pose a challenge. There will be sections that we’ve driven in the past, but the pacenotes we have been quite old, so in that way it’s more like a new rally and probably quite a busy recce making fresh notes.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“I’m excited to go to Rally Poland for the first time. My pre-event test last week was my first taste of Polish gravel roads, but everything went well. The stages look to be a bit similar to Estonia: very high speed and with a bit of a soft surface in sections. It’s going to be a big challenge, but I like this kind of fast rally, so I’m really looking forward to it. I obviously don’t have old pacenotes, but I can watch some onboards from previous years to prepare. Drivers who were there when Poland was last in the calendar will maybe have an advantage, but I just need to try to do my best. I hope to get a good feeling and solid result, ready to push in Latvia and Finland where my targets will be higher.”

 

M-Sport Ford WRT

Adrien Fourmaux

“It will be my first time competing in Poland next week, but it will be the first fast gravel event of three, so I want to build on this one to improve our pace for the next two. We plan to get a good result, and to forget what happened in Sardinia. We’ve been working with the team so we can start to meet expectations again and hopefully get back on the podium soon. We’re going to do our best; the only thing I know from this rally is that its quite fast and quite sandy! So there will be a lot of learning, but we can use our experience to support us and see what we can achieve.”

Grégoire Munster

“I’m looking forward to taking on the next three fast gravel events coming up. We had a good pre-event test in Estonia last week, being able to drive the Puma at such high speeds is just unbelievable. It’s really the best way to experience the car, so I can’t wait to start! Poland is going to be important because the set-up we establish there is going to be the base for the next two rallies. The surface in Poland can be a bit softer and there can be some rutting, which we didn’t see on the test, so that will be an interesting discovery.

“I’m happy to be experiencing a new event, this time we will be a bit more on the same level with the other crews in terms of stage knowledge, so it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out!”

Mārtiņš Sesks

“I’m really excited to be back competing in Poland! We have some great memories here, especially after winning the ERC round last year! For sure this year is a completely different game, this will be our first event in a Rally1 car. The testing we did last week was something incredible, and a completely different experience to anything I’ve done before! The car reacts so quickly, and how fast it goes round corners is just so unique and indescribable to anyone who hasn’t driven the car.

“It will be a big challenge to get up to speed, but this is the goal for Poland. We will be driving non-hybrid to get use to the aerodynamics of the car, get to know the team and to get more and more ready to be in good shape for Latvia. The goal is to get the mileage, finish the rally and learn as much as we can.”

WRC2

Oliver Solberg

“Competing at home is always something really nice and winning Royal Rally was very cool, but there was another part to this plan – and that was to get the head into the right place for the fast gravel. It’s quite a different rhythm, car set-up and, of course, feeling in the car when you come to events like Poland from rallies like Portugal or Sardinia.

“I feel like we’re really in a good shape now after the win. The feeling, especially on the second day in Sweden, was really strong with the car. We know the roads are a little bit different in Poland, they can be softer, sandier and with more ruts on the second pass, but still to be going through the forests and the countryside flat-out is the same.

“I never drove this rally before, but I think everybody knows how incredible the stages can be, Thursday night’s super special is really well known and will be very cool to drive for the first time. I’m also looking forward to the fans and the atmosphere – this is another big aspect of this rally.

“For a result, I think you know me well enough now to know the approach for this season is to push for the wins, but to also have a big eye on the title. Going off the road in Portugal was tough and then not starting in Sardinia – even though we weren’t scoring points – was not so ideal. Winning Royal Rally of Scandinavia was a good reset and it’s given me and Elliott [Edmondson] good confidence going into the second half of this year’s WRC2 series.”

Let’s take a look at the stages.

Rally Poland commences on Thursday morning with Shakedown, followed by SSS1 Mikołajki Arena (2.50km) in the evening.

Friday’s itinerary features two loops of Stańczyki (SS2/5, 29.40km), Wieliczki (SS3/6, 12.90km) and Olecko (SS4/7, 13.20km) before closing with another run of Mikołajki Arena (SSS8, 2.50km).

Saturday has the longest competitive distance of 124.10km across seven stages: Świętajno (SS9/13, 18.50km), Gołdap (SS10/14, 19.90km), Czarne (SS11/15, 22.40km) and SSS12 Mikołajki Arena 3 (2.50km).

Sunday concludes the weekend with four stages, including the Power Stage: SS19 Mikołajki 2 (10.73km).

Summary

It is great to have this round back on the calendar and it will be very interesting to how the weekend’s stages deliver the standings at the end of each day and how each crew deal with the challenge of each stage.

Any of the top regular crews could stand on the podium and it will be the crew that is the fastest that keeps out of trouble who wins.

Enjoy!