Saturday was a Toyota Gazoo Racing GR Yaris/Kalle Rovanpera roadshow. The double world champion doubled his overnight lead and claimed his 200th WRC stage win along the way in his and Haltunnen’s 50th start for the Toyota brand.
No one (except those living in Latvia) will care that Martins Sesks dropped from second to third by the third stage of the morning. It was a close run affair, for the amazing Latvian’s pace continued unabated with a mere 0.2 between the flying Ford pair and Sebastian Ogier, who was on his own mission to maximize his points haul for his boss.
After the midday service, the gap in the fight for the second step of the podium had grown – to 0.8 seconds.
Ott Tanak had a far better feeling in the car and quickly moved from sixth to fourth, demoting Adrien Fourmaux in the process and catching Sesks at a rapid pace until he clobbered a hay bale in the day’s closing stage through the streets of Leipaja giving Sesks a bit more breathing room. The Estonian Hyundai driver is still in the podium conversation though. “On the jump landing, a driveshaft or gearbox or something broke. I couldn’t slow down at all. It’s been some afternoon.”
He had a bizarre incident on stage 14 as well. An unexpected arch rivalry then came into play, seemingly intent on bursting Tänak’s bubble. In the midst of an impressive run on SS14, the #8 Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid crew collected a deflated sponsor arch that had fallen onto the gravel road, forcing them to stop. However, their efforts were not lost, and duo was awarded a nominal second-fastest time through the stage, which brought the gap to third to just 6.8 seconds.
Katsuta’s strong run came to an end after he went into a ditch, dropping 48.3 seconds while regaining the road, which left him trailing down in seventh place.
Oliver Solberg is comfortably leading WRC2 by 26.6 seconds from Mikko Heikkila with Sami Pajari spoiling for a fight on Sunday, five seconds off his Finnish friend and rival.
Leading positions after Saturday:
1. K Rovanperä / J Halttunen FIN Toyota GR Yaris 1h 58m 55.6s
2. S Ogier / V Landais FRA Toyota GR Yaris +42.5s
3. M Sesks / R Francis LVA Ford Puma +47.2s
4. O Tänak / M Järveoja EST Hyundai i20 N +1m 8.0s
5. A Fourmaux / A Coria FRA Ford Puma +1m 16.4s
6. E Evans / S Martin GBR Toyota GR Yaris +1m 34.3s
