Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera took a dominant start-to-finish victory at Rally Latvia on Sunday afternoon (above)the reigning WRC champion who took two consecutive victories in fast gravel races.

The 24-year-old Finn began his very first rally on Latvian roads more than a decade ago at the age of 12. He now found himself on familiar ground when he gave a masterclass at the first round of the FIA ​​World Rally Championship in the Baltic country.

Rovanpera, who has opted to campaign part-time for Toyota Gazoo Racing in 2024, was never really challenged during the four-day event, which began on Thursday evening in the capital Riga before heading south to the coastal city of Liepaja. He built up a commanding lead through the opening two stages in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 before cruising through Sunday’s final stage to win the eighth round of the season by 39.2 seconds.

Eight-time WRC champion and fellow part-timer Sebastien Ogier finished 1-2 in a Toyota, while Hyundai i20 N Rally1 driver Ott Tanak took the final podium spot from the hugely impressive Martins Sesks after the local hero’s M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 suffered a rally-ending transmission failure in the Wolf Power Stage.

“It was a great weekend,” said Rovanpera, whose victory followed a similarly dominant performance at the previous round on the super-fast gravel of Poland. “It’s cool to get the first win here because Latvia is an important place for me.

“A big thank you to Jonne and the whole team — we are stronger than expected. We are going to enjoy this and then work hard in Finland.”

Sesks was cruelly robbed of what could have been a maiden WRC podium after only his second start at the highest level of rallying, and his first in a full-spec Rally1 hybrid machine. The 24-year-old Latvian won two stages on Friday and went into Sunday’s final test with a seemingly comfortable margin of 4.6 seconds over Tanak, despite two overshoots earlier in the morning, but Sesks’ Puma Rally1 suffered a transmission problem early in the stage.

“It was in the first corner,” explained Sesks, who lost almost two minutes and dropped back to seventh. “We don’t know if it was a diff problem or something, but after that we understood that our chance for the podium was gone. Still, I think we showed our pace and made everyone happy.”

The battle between the WRC drivers was decided when the tenacious Tanak took maximum points on Super Sunday to move up to second in the standings.

He now trails Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville by just eight points with five rounds to go, with Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, who has dropped to third in the standings, just five points further back. Neuville and Evans were eighth and fifth respectively, both struggling to recover from the time losses incurred by running first and second on the road on Friday and getting the worst of the loose gravel.

M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux finished 27.0 seconds behind Tanak in fourth, despite suffering a minor engine problem in the final two stages. Evans finished a further 11.2 seconds behind Tanak in fifth.

Takamoto Katsuta finished sixth overall in his GR Yaris, ahead of the ailing Sesks and Neuville, while Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi and M-Sport Ford driver Gregoire Munster both suffered technical problems in the closing stages to complete the top 10.

In WRC2, the second level of international rallying, Oliver Solberg took the championship lead after taking an impressive and measured victory for Latvia.

The 22-year-old Swede led from start to finish on a surface he enjoys and took maximum points in his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, passing Sami Pajari and Yohan Rossel, who did not drive in Latvia for any of his seven events, in the battle for the WRC2 title.

After winning seven of the eight stages on Friday to build up a lead of more than half a minute in the opening round, Solberg managed to control his pace well in the final two stages to hold off the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 of Finland’s Mikko Heikkila.

Solberg now leads the WRC2 standings by three points from Pajari after finishing Rally Latvia with a 37.4 second advantage.

“It’s a fantastic feeling to finally win again,” said Solberg, whose last WRC2 victory came in February on the snow of Sweden. “There have been some tough rallies but it’s great to be back up to speed. The car worked well last weekend so thanks to the team for keeping it up to speed.”

The WRC then heads to Northern Europe for Rally Finland, the third and final leg of the trilogy on high-speed gravel tracks, from 1-4 August. Kalle Rovanpera has yet to win his home event, but with the part-timer in top form continuing his 2024 tour on the roads around Jyvaskyla, can he make it three wins in a row?

WRC Rally Latvia, final standings after stage three, SS20
1 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 2h31m47.6s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +39.2s
3 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1m04.5s
4 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m31.5s
5 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m42.7s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m07.0s
7 Martins Sesks/Renars Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +2m45.4s
8 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m46.4s
9 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +5m12.4s
10 Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +5m23.1s

WRC Drivers Championship after 8 rounds
1 Neuville 145 points
2 Tanak-137
3 Evans132
4 Ogier117
5 Quadrupeds 101

WRC Manufacturers Championship after 8 rounds
1 Hyundai Motorsport 351 points
2 Toyota Gazoo Racing 350
3 M-Sport Ford 177

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