Preview: Tet Rally Latvia

Excitement is building across the Baltic nation in anticipation of Thursday evening’s rally start in the capital city, Riga, when the world’s best rally drivers and cars will do battle on Latvian soil for the first time. The country boasts not only masses of passionate fans, but also home-grown talent in the form of Mārtiņš Sesks.

Sesks, who is just 24 years old and lives in Liepāja where the event’s service park is based, finished an incredible fifth on his Rally1 debut in Poland last month.

After driving without a plug-in hybrid unit last time out in order to adapt to his Ford Puma Rally1, Sesks and co-driver Renars Francis will count on hybrid power for their home event, which they won in 2022 and 2023 when it was a round of the FIA European Rally Championship.

“Coming to [my home event in] Latvia is always going to be exciting," said the youngster. “I will do my best. I’m hoping what we did in Poland has helped the organisers to sell even more tickets for Latvia. It’s going to be exciting for the fans – as well as for me – to have a local driver competing at this level.”

Bookmarked on the calendar between Poland and Finland, Latvia makes up part of the WRC's high-speed European summer, characterised by fast-paced gravel roads with stomach-churning jumps and countless blind crests.

Its unique itinerary, which boasts very few repeated stages, poses a challenge for Thierry Neuville, who currently tops the standings by 15 points. Driving a Hyundai i20 N Rally1, the Belgian will have the task of opening the road on Friday, clearing a faster line for those behind him.

“Rally Latvia is going to be another challenging rally, and it is always more difficult when you are first on the road and the first to discover the conditions," he admitted. "The cleaning will be massive. Some stages aren’t repeated, and a lot of fast part-time drivers will be there, so while our expectations are not so high our motivation is to finish ahead of our rivals is strong."

Neuville’s team-mates Ott Tänak and Esapekka Lappi have been preparing with warm-up events; Tänak at Rally Estonia and Lappi at Lietuva Rally in Lithuania. While Tänak faced a setback, crashing out on the first day of his home rally, Lappi claimed victory on his test run.

Toyota GAZOO Racing brings a star-studded line-up of GR Yaris Rally1 cars with Elfyn Evans, currently second in the points, joined by reigning world champion Kalle Rovanperä and eight-time title-winner Sébastien Ogier. Rovanperä clinched victory in Poland despite replacing Ogier just 48 hours before the rally. Takamoto Katsuta will also drive a Toyota but won’t score manufacturers’ championship points.

Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster complete a three-pronged M-Sport Ford Puma attack alongside Sesks, with Fourmaux fresh off the back of his third podium of the season.

The opening test takes place at the Biķernieki Track in Riga on Thursday (18 July) evening. Crews face 20 special stages covering a timed distance of 300.13 km before the finish on Sunday afternoon.