Rovanpera takes overnight lead at Rally Latvia
18th July 2024Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera stands as the leading driver of Rally Latvia after the Finnish crew secured the opening stage win of the event.
Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool
11km was the opening distance in Thursday’s sole super-special stage to kick off the action in Latvia. Although the event is set to be a gravel event, the first stage of the event was solely asphalt.
Latvia marks the eighth round of the World Rally Championship and the event makes its debut on the World Rally stage. The event will consist of a total of 20 stages to complete the championship round.
Despite the lengthy warm-up to Rally Latvia, all of the WRC crews were able to keep their cars on track, causing little to no issues for their respective teams.
So how did the opening day pan out?
Rovanpera topped the opening day with a 7m 28.5s loop around the 11km circuit, 2.4s faster than his closest rivals. Hyundai’s championship leader Thierry Neuville and Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier completed the top three, in second and third respectively, with identical times (7m 30.9s).
This marks Ogier’s return to rallying after he was withdrawn from Rally Poland, last time out, due to a road traffic accident on the reconnaissance phase of the event, in which Rovanpera was parachuted in to replace the eight-time world champion.
M-Sport Ford’s Martin Sesks was best of the rest in fourth and he was kept company by Toyota’s championship contender, Elfyn Evans in fifth.
Takamoto Katsuta of Toyota led the bottom five of the top 10 in the Rally1. Hyundai’s Ott Tanak was 0.3s off the Japanese driver, after the first stage, as he outbroke himself into a tight left-hander.
Adrien Fourmaux (Ford), Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) and Gregoire Munster (Ford) completed the top 10 in eighth, ninth and 10th respectively.
In turn, this means all of the WRC’s premier class occupy a spot inside the top 10 with Oliver Solberg leading the WRC2 category in 11th.
Seven stages line up the action on Friday which will see the World Rally competitors tackling a total of 120.92km across the Latvian terrain.
Read more WRC here:
- Esapekka Lappi completes Hyundai line-up for Rally Latvia
- Ott Tanak looking for redemption in Latvia after Rally Poland
- Sebastien Ogier to return in WRC Rally Latvia after accident
- Spectator safety issues lead to two cancelled stages in Rally Poland
- Tanak gives update after hitting a deer in Rally Poland
- Rovanpera to replace Ogier following car crash for Rally Poland
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
