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Kalle Rovanperä’s rivals were left trailing in his dust after the Finn extended his Tet Rally Latvia lead with a sublime second-leg drive on Saturday.
The 23-year-old, who made his competition debut in the Baltic nation more than 10 years ago, distanced the chasing pack through eight super-fast gravel tests near Liepāja to grow his advantage from 15.7sec to 42.5sec with just one day remaining of this eighth round.
It was a milestone morning for Rovanperä as he notched up the 200th stage win of his WRC career on the sun-kissed Snepele test. His advantage climbed to 34.8sec by mid-leg service and that dominance continued into the afternoon, with the Finn topping the timesheets on all but one occasion. His Toyota team-mate Sébastien Ogier made it a GR Yaris 1-2 with local ace Mārtiņš Sesks a close third.
Ogier began the day 5.9sec behind Sesks but surpassed the M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 youngster in the final stage of the morning. Luck was on the Frenchman’s side when he ran wide into a ditch on SS11, ploughing through the undergrowth before popping back onto the road unscathed.
Sesks, who ended the day just 4.7sec further back, sits on the cusp of a sensational podium on only his second outing at rallying’s highest level. The two drivers ahead of him, plus Ott Tänak behind, are all previous world title winners.
Tänak climbed from sixth to fourth in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1, winning SS11 and closing to within 6.3sec of Sesks. However, a transmission fault in the day-ending Liepāja City Stage cost him around 15sec and he reached the overnight halt 20.8sec in arrears.
The Estonian was successful in collecting more Saturday classification points than fellow title challengers Elfyn Evans and Thierry Neuville, who were sixth and eighth respectively, but he must finish the rally on Sunday in order to bank them.
Fifth went the way of Puma star Adrien Fourmaux, who ended 8.4sec down on Tänak but with 17.9sec in hand over Toyota man Evans. Takamoto Katsuta fell to seventh, having run as high as fourth before an impact broke his GR Yaris car’s power steering on SS11.
Championship leader Neuville, still struggling with low traction running second on the road, placed eighth in his Hyundai while Esapekka Lappi and Grégoire Munster completed the top 10.
Solberg edges closer to Latvia WRC2 triumph
Oliver Solberg is on course to claim his second WRC2 victory of the 2024 season after safely consolidating his lead on Saturday.
After a dominant Friday, during which the Swede won six out of seven stages to construct a 31.1sec advantage, Solberg’s focus switched to lead preservation on Saturday’s equally fast gravel roads east of the rally’s Liepāja base.
Being the first Rally2 competitor onto the stages presented a challenge in itself, with Solberg forced to sweep a fresh line after the wider, more powerful Rally1 cars had been through. Despite that, he and co-driver Elliott Edmondson were inside the top three on each stage and collected two fastest times along the way.
The Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 pair headed Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 rival Mikko Heikkilä by 26.6sec overnight, with Sami Pajari’s similar car 5.0sec further back. Heikkilä also led the WRC2 Challenger category.
Emil Lindholm’s podium bid went awry when he crashed his Hyundai i20 N Rally2 on SS14. Škoda man Fau Zaldivar was promoted to fourth as a result, although he trailed Pajari by more than two minutes, while Roberto Daprà took fifth ahead of Ford Fiesta Rally2 hotshot William Creighton.
Also in trouble were Toyota men Brandon Semenuk and Gregor Jeets, both of whom rolled. Jeets managed to continue and ended the day seventh but Semenuk, a world-famous mountain bike racer, was forced to retire.
Armin Kremer’s WRC Masters Cup lead stood at more than 20 minutes after Mauro Miele, his nearest challenger up until SS12, rolled out of contention. The German driver held eighth in the overall WRC2 standings while Joosep Nõgene continued to dominate WRC3.
Sunday’s deciding leg boasts two stages, each used twice, totalling 64.08km. Up first is Krogzemji at 08:55 local time.
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SEASON 2024SportRallies1SportWorld Rally ChampionshipRalliesWRCSEASON 2024WRC01Saturday, July 20, 2024 – 8:00pmSunday, July 21, 2024 – 11:05am