The seventh round of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) season, ORLEN 80th Rally Poland, has ended, with the victory of world champion Kalle Rovanper with driver Jonni Haltunen (Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT). The Latvian crew Mārtiņš Sesks / Renārs Francis finished in fifth place in their world championship debut with an excellent performance, starting with an M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 car without a hybrid drive.
The Seska crew, starting as part of the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team in the Friday morning stages, surprised the whole world by setting the second fastest time in the first stage of the day, keeping it also in the rally standings after the first section. At the end of the day, the fastest overall time was achieved by Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT driver Andreas Mikkelsen, who lost 1.8 and 2 seconds to Toyota drivers Kalle Rovanpera and Elfin Evans, respectively. At the end of the first day, Cesk finished in fifth place, just 7.7 seconds behind the leader. Unlucky start to the rally for the Hyundai driver, especially the Estonian Ota Tanak, who collided with a deer in the first stage of the day, leaving him out of the fight for victory.
On the morning of the second day of the rally, Finland’s Rovanpera took over the leadership of the rally, maintaining the lead until the end of the day and earning 18 points in the overall championship standings. Not far behind was Mikkelsen, who lost 9.4 seconds to the leader before the last day of the rally, and secured at least 15 points in the overall standings in his third WRC rally this year. British Evans took third place after Saturday, while the Ceska / Franca crew continued to show an enviably stable performance, defending fifth place at the end of the day, a tenth of a second ahead of championship leader Thierry Neuville. For the fifth place after Saturday, Liepaja team earned 10 points.
Tanak had a great start to Sunday’s stages, trying to regain at least some of the lost points. Tanak set the best times in the first two laps of the day to lead the Super Sunday standings. On the other hand, it was a bad start to the morning for the Norwegian Mikkelsen, who crashed the wheel, losing a lot of time. Rovanpera won the overall rally standings, gaining almost half a minute’s lead by the finish line. It is worth mentioning that Rovanpera’s participation in the rally was announced only on Tuesday evening, replacing Sébastien Ogier, so the Finn had to face a tight schedule while familiarizing himself with the stages. Rowanper’s teammate Evans finished in second place, while Seska’s teammate, Frenchman Adrian Formo, managed to earn the third podium of the season.
Mārtiņš Sesks and co-driver Renars Franci won the fifth place in his World Rally Championship debut, adding another point to the points earned on Saturday in Sunday’s Super Sunday.
Estonia’s Tanaks was able to get revenge and earned 11 points on Sunday, setting the best time in Sunday’s stage standings and taking second place in the final Power Stage, while championship leader Neuville reached the maximum five Power Stage points.
Finland’s Sami Pajari won the WRC2 event, who will make his debut in the main class of the championship at the Finnish WRC stage. Oliver Solberg finished the rally in second position, losing 22 seconds to the winner, while Estonian Roberts Virves was in third place.
“It’s been quite an amazing week, it wasn’t the usual situation. We worked hard, so now I feel very tired. Definitely the best thing is that we arrived and it wasn’t a bad idea to go help the team. We got a lot of valuable points in the team competition. This was definitely one of the hardest victories, with the preparation we had, we focused not to make mistakes, but at the same time we tried to be fast, which is not easy,” says Kalle Rovanpera, the winner of the Polish Rally.
In the World Championship, the leading position in the overall standings is still kept by Neuville, who has 136 points, while Evans has accumulated 15 points less. Tanaka, who is in third position, has 115 points. In the manufacturers’ standings, Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team is in the lead with 311 points, while Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT is just 10 points behind. Meanwhile, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team follows further behind with 156 points.
In three weeks, from July 18 to 21, the FIA World Rally Championship will visit Latvia for the first time in its history, as part of the Tet Rally Latvia, the world’s fastest rally crews will compete on the roads of the Kurzeme region and on the Biķernieki circuit.
Results:
2024-06-30 18:20:38
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