LATVIA RALLY, TOYOTA ONE-TWO WITH ROVANPERA AND OGIER

The Finn takes his second consecutive victory after the one in Poland

Tyre strategy centred on the softs to tackle the fast Latvian gravel roads, but the hard also played its part

Testoni: “Under stress, the tyres reached a record temperature of 150 degrees centigrade”

Two out of two. That’s Toyota’s score, with its drivers occupying the top two steps of the podium, but also a personal one for Kalle Rovanpera who took his second consecutive rally win, having also claimed victory a fortnight ago in Poland. It is the Finn’s third win of the season, including Kenya. The Finn held the lead right from the start, in part down to intelligent choices and management of the tyres, never allowing his rivals a look-in, including team-mate Sebastien Ogier, who finished second. Behind the Toyota crews, Ott Tanak was the best of the Hyundai runners, mounting a long challenge including a hard charging final day which saw him take all the spoils on Super Sunday, ahead of Ogier and Rovanpera.

In WRC2, Oliver Solberg had the upper hand over his rivals right from the early stages, building up a lead that his closest rivals Mikko Heikkila and Sam Pajari in their Toyotas were unable to close down for the rest of the rally.

THE CHALLENGE
The fast roads, featuring loose gravel and dirt covered surfaces pushed the teams towards favouring the soft compound Scorpion tyres, which were the prime in Latvia. However, the hards also had a part to play, especially for the drivers who started further down the order and found cleaner, very abrasive surfaces, particularly on Friday, the most demanding day of the weekend. The asymmetry of the loops contributed to introducing more variety to the rally and to tyre strategy, as some stages didn’t have a second pass, while some first passes also took place in the afternoons.

PIRELLI QUOTE
Terenzio Testoni, Rally Activity Manager: “Once again, we witnessed an interesting rally, partly due to the format which included first passes also in the afternoon. The tyres were subjected to rather significant stresses, especially on Friday, when the surfaces were more abrasive and tyre temperatures exceeded 150 degrees centigrade, something that’s never happened before. This once again underlined the versatility of the softs and their adaptability to all race conditions. Furthermore, wear was generally well within the limits expected prior to the event. In Finland, before the summer break, the rally will be similar to this one in terms of the speed of the stages, but generally with lower abrasiveness than we experienced here on Friday.”

Below is a graphic summary of Rally Latvia