2024-07-21 08:16:04
Second place was taken by Japanese Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota GR Yaris), and third by Luxembourg driver Gregoire Munster (Ford Puma), losing 3.5 and 5.6 seconds to the winner of the stage, respectively.
Sesks (“Ford Puma”) finished fourth, losing 6.8 seconds to Rovanperem.
“I was quite cautious in the morning, but when you drive this fast car, you need to start the day sober because it’s crazy fast. We enjoyed it,” Seska is quoted as saying by the organizers. “I want to ride with the pedal on the floor, but when I turn on the hybrid technology, it gets even faster.”
In the Tukuma stage, which was the third in this competition, Cesk and Franci celebrated their first victory in the WRC competition.
“Last year in the European Rally Championship (ERC) we won here with a difference of 16 seconds, now we have won the first stage,” says Cesks. “We were able to get into a good rhythm and drive at the same speed as the world champions.”
“The continuation was relatively slippery,” admits the Latvian pilot, explaining that it is not easy to switch after driving in the ERC with another manufacturer’s car.
The pilot says that he is slowly starting to understand the soft compound tires.
“In the next speed stage, we were very close to ending up on the side of the road. The tires were getting hotter and hotter,” explains Cesk.
He admits that there were a couple of mistakes in the penultimate stage, but overall everything was fine.
“In the end, we didn’t have spare tires anymore. It was quite difficult to take care of everything,” admits Cesk, adding that Thursday and Friday were very emotional in front of his fans.
The other Latvian crews competing in the WRC2 class, Matīss Mežaks/Arnis Ronis and Artūrs Priednieks/Jānis Kirkovalds, respectively, took the 24th and 30th place in the overall speed stage ranking in the competition of 37 crews.
After the second day of the competition and completed eight stages, Rovanpere retains the leading position, who is ahead of Seska by 15.7 seconds, while Frenchman Sebastien Ogier (“Toyota GR Yaris”) is in third place, losing 21.6 seconds to the leader. The crew piloted by Mežak takes 30th place and Priednieka’s – 32nd place.
It has already been reported that the crew piloted by Seska won the third and fourth stages.
Eight more stages are scheduled on Saturday, and four stages will be held on Sunday, the final day of the competition. The crews in Latvia have to perform 20 speed stages with a length of 300.13 kilometers, but together with the crossings they will be more than 1000 kilometers.
At the end of June, Ceska’s crew made their WRC debut, finishing fifth in Rally Poland.
After seven stages, the first place in the world championship is taken by the Hyundai Shell Mobis pilot Thierry Neville from Belgium, who has accumulated 136 points, the second place is the British pilot Elfin Evans (Toyota GR Yaris) with 121 points, and the Estonian Ots Tenak with 115 points. round out the top three.
Sesks ranks 14th with nine points.
The first WRC stage in Latvia covers the territory from Liepāja to Riga, with speed stages also taking place in Tukums, Talsi and Talsu districts, Kuldīgas and Southern Kurzeme districts.
The season will continue with stages in Finland, Greece, Chile, Germany and Japan.
Finnish racing driver Kalle Rovanpere became a two-time world champion last year, securing the title one stage before the end of the season. Rovanpere, who won two Latvian rally championships at the beginning of his career, is not competing in all WRC stages this year.
2024-07-21 08:16:04