The second full day of this rally got underway in bright sunshine just like the first day. Esapekka Lappi would open the road throughout the eight stages.
First up was SS9 Pilskalns – 18.87 km, the first of a number of stages that would only be run once. Kalle made the most of his start position and was fastest from Seb and Ott. The Estonian crews’ pace was impressive given their road position that put them ahead of the two crews that they were faster than. It just shows how good the 2019 world champions are at extracting pace from stages which are ‘sketchy’. They passed Adrien and Alex and were back into fifth overall.
Into SS10 Snēpele – 17.52 km and Kalle was again fastest from Ott and Elfyn. Ott was now just half a second behind Takamoto as well. Could they gain another position in the next stage? Elfyn and Scott were also closing on Adrien and Alex’s sixth place.
Next up was SS11 Īvande – 23.04 km and Ott’s pace took him and Martin to their first stage win of the weekend from Takamoto and Kalle. Martins was only seventh fastest and fell to third overall whilst Takamoto also dropped a position to fifth as Ott passed him.
The final morning stage, SS12 Vecpils 1 – 12.64 km would be the only stage run twice and Kalle was back to stage winning pace from Seb and Ott. Both Adrien and Elfyn gained a position on the leaderboard as Takamoto had a moment at one of the chicanes and nudged a tree on the exit. The result of this was that his Yaris suffered powersteering failure making it very hard to control the car and he dropped behind into seventh place.
After service SS13 Podnieki – 10.09 km was next up and Kalle was again fastest from Seb and Martins. This meant the Latvian crew would remain in third place as their closest challenger, Ott and Martin in their i20 would only be fifth fastest. Takamoto was back on the pace again and also faster than Thierry, just what Elfyn and the Toyota team needed now.
The second run of SS14 Vecpils 2 – 12.64 km would see some drama for two crews. First of all, Elfyn would run wide and take a stage side banner with him before finishing the stage. Next to finish was Ott, but then the stage was red flagged, and Ott had not finished the stage. It turned out that their Hyundai had come across a deflated arch in the road at the same point where Elfyn had gone off and this had become tangled up with the number eight Hyundai. Unsure how rally control had allowed this to happen and the three cars that had been affected with this in the stage were given notional times, those being Ott, Adrien and Takamoto. The stage was completed in the normal way with Kalle going fastest from Ott and Seb.
There was a stage win for Seb in SS15 Dinsdurbe – 6.64 km from Kalle and Takamoto. Further back, Adrien was driving well, making the most of his road position and edging away from Elfyn. Martins remained firmly in third overall and had a 6.3 second gap to Ott.
Just the short SS16 Liepāja City Stage – 2.56 km remained and Kalle was fastest from Takamoto and Thierry whilst Elfyn matched the time set by Thierry. There was more drama for Ott though as he could only manage the 29th best time. The reason? Well on the jump in the stage something broke in the transmission and he lost around 14 seconds.
Let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.
Classification after Day Two
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Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Kalle Rovanperä
“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
“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
“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
“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.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Ott Tänak
“What a day. Probably after what happened in SS14, in the last stage we had a technical failure on landing, which seems to have broken the drive shaft and I couldn’t slow down anymore, but we were straight into a very slow corner – we had to use the hay bale to slow the car down. We definitely can’t say this is a very good weekend, as it had the potential to be so much better, but at least this part of the rally is done and tomorrow we start from scratch. We don’t need to focus on staying ahead but rather gaining as many points as possible from the event.”
Round 08, Rally Latvia
18 – 21 July 2024
Ott Tanak
Photographer: Austral
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Thierry Neuville
“We got through the day, making no mistakes, and managed to work on the car to see what we can improve. It was important to score those three points, which we need to secure tomorrow, but now we can take a bit more risk on Sunday as there is not much for us to lose. With only one repeated stage and lots of cleaning we did the best that we could today, and while it will still be challenging as third on the road tomorrow, we need to take everything we can from a weekend like this.”
Esapekka Lappi
“We discovered a lot of good things today – I would say it was definitely ten times better than yesterday, which was great for my confidence. I felt good inside the car, and it makes a difference to not feel uncertain all the time. We had much more grip than yesterday, so overall it has been a positive day. We have a base to work from now for both tomorrow and Finland, and I think we made some very interesting steps. Based on our experience today, having someone in front of us tomorrow will make a difference to our times on the stages.”
Oliver Solberg
“Today was about looking after the lead we made yesterday. The morning was tricky, the grip was changing quite a lot. If you were sliding too much or going off the line, it was fairly loose and abrasive and could use the tyres quickly. I was trying to drive a bit more conservatively.
“The stages were nice today, but you know me I would always like to be driving for longer! Elliott [Edmondson, co-driver] and I were sensible, and we know we have to do more of the same on Sunday. We want the points. It’s been nice to see the fans out there and the atmosphere around the event has been really enjoyable.
“I have good memories from competing in this country and I’m happy to be back.”
Sunday
The final day of action will see the crews tackle four stages and 64km’s. Can Martins and his co-driver Renars hang onto their podium, or will Ott come past them?