RALLY LATVIA, FRIDAY THE KEY DAY

Asymmetric loops with a few one-off stages that will not include a second pass and some first runs even in the afternoons; Friday features the toughest surfaces of the entire rally; a first long test on an entirely asphalt surface; the rest of the rally mainly uses dirt covered surfaces and loose gravel and drivers’ strategy will therefore depend on their start position; lastly, roads that will break up less than those seen on Rally Poland.

These are the main characteristics of Rally Latvia that have emerged from the analysis carried out by the Pirelli engineers following the recce.

Specifically, the Latvian rally can be categorised as being of medium severity in terms of both tyre wear and risk of damage, with reasonably good grip levels on Saturday and Sunday, although it will be poorer on Friday’s stages.

It seems that the road surfaces should generally be dry, especially on the first day, while they will tend to be a bit damp on the first of the morning passes over the rest of the weekend.

The surfaces are moderately abrasive.

It is worth noting that all crews have opted to take their full allowance of the soft compound Scorpion SB, therefore only taking 8 hards with the 28 softs, apart from the Ford drivers (Fourmaux, Munster and Sesks) who are going with 4 additional hard tyres (12 hard and 24 soft).

Below is the full analysis provided by the Pirelli engineers

TYRES AVAILABLE
In Latvia, the new generation soft compound Scorpion KX WRC SB is the prime tyre, featuring a revised construction which ensures increased durability and resistance compared to its previous iteration, while maintaining the same level of performance. The option tyre is the hard compound Scorpion KX WRC HB, recommended for the more abrasive surfaces and longer stages.

As for the other categories, in Latvia, the Rally2 cars will have available the Scorpion K6B (soft) and the new K4C (hard), while the Rally3 cars will run the K6A (soft) and the K4A (hard). For these categories, the allocation is 26 and 8 for the prime and option respectively.