TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team finished Saturday at Rally Latvia with world champions Kalle Rovanperä and Sébastien Ogier occupying the top two positions with one day remaining.
After the longest day of the event on Friday, Saturday would feature eight stages in total, with an initial loop of 72.07 kilometres followed by service in Liepāja and another loop of 31.93 km. With only one stage to be repeated in identical form, drivers would face a mix of first and second-pass conditions through the day.
Beginning the day with a lead of 15.7 seconds over local favourite Mārtiņš Sesks (M-Sport Ford), Rovanperä more than doubled his advantage to 34.8s with three stage wins out of four in the longer first loop – despite carrying an additional second spare tyre compared to his rivals.
Rovanperä’s second stage win of the day was his and co-driver Jonne Halttunen’s 200th in the FIA World Rally Championship, on what is their 50th start since stepping up to the top class with TGR-WRT in 2020. With another three stage wins in the afternoon loop, they extended their lead to 42.5s by the end of the day.
Already the top first-timer in Latvia on Friday, Ogier took second place from Sesks in the third test of the day even though he ran wide into a ditch in the final part of the stage. The gap between the most and least experienced drivers in the field remained at just 0.6s when they returned to Liepāja for mid-day service, but Ogier won SS15 and finished the day 4.7s in front.
With a one-two on Saturday night, TGR-WRT is on to take maximum manufacturers’ championship points from the first part of the event should Rovanperä and Ogier reach the finish on Sunday.
Elfyn Evans is in sixth position overall, limited from making further progress up the leaderboard by the road-cleaning effect after already running second on the road on Friday, but importantly finished the day two places ahead of championship leader Thierry Neuville (Hyundai). Takamoto Katsuta is between Evans and Neuville in seventh, having been fighting for fourth before an overshoot at a chicane in SS12 damaged his power steering.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“It’s been another really good day for us. Our guys have been driving really fast and at the same time we can see that our car has been working really well on these roads. Kalle has been very strong and been able to build his lead today, and Seb has also been doing a good job to give us the one-two at the end of Saturday, which will be really helpful for the championship if we secure those points tomorrow. Taka was building his performance nicely, and it was just a very small mistake from him that unfortunately had some harsh consequences. Elfyn is on to score more Saturday points than Thierry and it will be exciting to see what we can do on Sunday.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“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 (Driver car 33)
“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 (Driver car 17)
“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 (Driver car 18)
“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.”
End of day three (Saturday):
1 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) 1h58m55.6s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +42.5s
3 Mārtiņš Sesks/Renārs Francis (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +47.2s
4 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +1m08.0s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +1m16.4s
6 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m34.3s
7 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +1m46.0s
8 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +2m33.9s
9 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +3m11.1s
10 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +3m40.9s
(Results as of 20:50 on Saturday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What's next?
The final day of the rally on Sunday follows a more typical format than the rest of the event, with a pair of stages both being run twice. The second of these tests, Mazilmāja, serves as the rally-ending Power Stage on its repeat pass. As usual in 2024, up to seven bonus points are available for the fastest drivers across Sunday, plus another five points in the Power Stage.
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