Based in Latvia’s third-largest city on the shores of the Baltic Sea, Rally Liepāja has been a round of the ERC since it was first run in 2013 – and its fast gravel stages are set to appear in the FIA World Rally Championship next year as part of the first Rally Latvia. With a route formed of 10 stages totalling 183.89 competitive kilometres, it gave the Challenge Program-supported trio the chance to build upon their strong performances on the previous ERC round in Poland over similar terrain. As in Poland, they would face tough competition, driving Renault Clio Rally4 cars among 22 entries in the ERC4 class.

The three drivers could hardly have made a better start to the rally on Saturday morning, dominating the top three times in their class on SS1 with Yamamoto quickest to take the early lead just ahead of Otake and Kogure.

Heavy dust following prolonged dry weather caused the subsequent repeat of the rally’s longest stage (27.56 kilometres) to be cancelled – only for rain to then fall for the rest of the day. Despite the slippery conditions, the three Japanese drivers continued to be consistent and avoid major mistakes.

Yamamoto, co-driven by Miika Teiskonen, remained in a close fight for the lead before his closest rival was excluded for an underweight car. He therefore led at the end of the day by 26.1 seconds ahead of Otake and his co-driver Marko Salminen, who went fastest in the Liepāja city stage that closed out the day. Kogure and co-driver Topi Luhtinen were just 1.3s off a podium position in fourth, despite a 10s penalty for a late check-in time.

Unfortunately, all three drivers would come into difficulty when they were close to strong results on Sunday. Kogure had to retire early in the second stage of the day due to a broken driveshaft, while Otake’s hopes of a podium effectively ended when his engine would not fire up after mid-day service. An unscheduled alternator change led to a 90-second time penalty, before he ultimately retired after sustaining radiator damage on landing from a jump in SS9. Similar circumstances would also force Yamamoto to stop when he was just one stage away from ERC4 victory.

Quotes:
Hikaru Kogure:“It was so disappointing to retire from this event because my feeling was getting better and better and everything was going well until that point. But it happened unfortunately and there was nothing we can do. After Rally Poland, I did a lot of training with my co-driver Topi and I could drive with a lot of confidence in my pacenotes, and that’s why we could set good times here in Latvia. I liked all the stages; they were so fast, wide and flowing with not so many crests, so it’s easier to know how much speed I can take into the corner. Rally Finland is next for us and we know that will have a lot more crests, so that will be a much bigger challenge.”

Nao Otake:“In the dry conditions at the start of the rally we had some really nice speed. We had a good setup for these conditions but when the rain came, it wasn’t so easy. Still, it was going OK until what happened on Sunday. We had an issue in the same place as Yuki on SS9, on what I think was not such a big jump. We had quite a heavy landing there and the radiator got some damage, so we needed to stop. For the second pass of the stage, I knew the road was getting very rough so I was taking it a bit carefully, and I didn’t expect such a heavy landing. So it was a pity. But I’m happy with the speed we had in the dry especially, and also because we had some new words in our pacenotes which were working well. Now I’m looking forward to Rally Finland.”

Yuki Yamamoto:“We expected that this rally would be quite smooth and fast, but the rain made the surface much softer and created quite rough and rutted conditions. Our setup was not ideal for this, but I think we still did well. Of course it’s really disappointing what happened in the end, but we can take positives from this rally. SS9 was the roughest conditions I’ve ever seen in terms of the ruts and they were even bigger than in Poland. But the problem was actually on landing from a jump, where I landed a bit on the front of the car. It seemed like quite a normal jump, so it’s a bit difficult to accept, but it is what it is. These last two events in the ERC have been a nice experience because the level has been really high and we have seen that we can be on this level on every stage.”

Mikko Hirvonen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program chief instructor):“Once again the performance of the guys was really good in Latvia. In a way, it’s a little bit frustrating that we always seem to have some kind of issue, but in another way it does not matter so much, because we are not fighting for any particular championship. We are just looking at the performance of the guys, and we were really impressed by the pace they all showed this weekend. They are improving too and starting to get to a level where they are able to perform strongly in changing conditions, keep their heads and adjust their driving. We expected the ruts to not be as bad as in Poland, but a little rain just seemed to make the roads really soft and the conditions became even rougher. The guys really tried to take care but one very bad place seemed to catch two of them out, which was unlucky, especially for Yuki as he was on for a great result. But we are more impressed with their overall performance, which has been really good across these last two ERC events against tough competition. Now we are looking forward to Rally Finland, which we know is a little bit different, but we’re sure they can perform there too.”