At the end of Friday morning, Kalle Rovanpera still leads Rally Latvia with Martins Sesks and Sebastien Ogier following him.
Kalle Rovanpera remains out in front and set the fastest time in Stage 2, but he said at the end of SS3 that he was struggling with the balance of his Yaris and had understeer. Moreover, he was very close on winning Stage 4, but he was slower than Sesks for only one tenth of a second.
Martins Sesks moved up to second place at the end of Stage 3 and was the fastest driver on the final two stages of Friday morning which means that he claimed his first ever stage win in World Rally Championship on his second outing with the Ford Puma. In Stage 3, he lost the exit on a tarmac section and is 3,2 seconds behind Rovanpera before the start of Friday afternoon.
Sebastien Ogier does the 1-3 for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT and lost his second place at the end of Stage 3 as he made a mistake on a chicane there.
Ott Tanak climbed to fourth and gained three positions since yesterday while he is behind Ogier for 6,2 seconds. The last one found some seconds on the second half of Stage 4 and managed to increase his gap over Tanak who was fastest than the Frenchman on the first two Friday stages.
Takamoto Katsuta completes the top five and kept his teammate Elfyn Evans behind for 3,3 seconds. The Japanese star oversteered in Stage 2 resulting in clipping an anticut device.
Evans lost only one place since the end of the superspecial stage which was held a day ago as it was difficult to get his Yaris turned as he reported at the end of Stage 3.
Adrien Fourmaux comes right behind the Welshman for three tenths of a second and Stage 3 was not one of his favorite as he was struggling with the lines.
Esapekka Lappi sits in eighth place overall and was not happy at all with his driving, but some reports suggested that his steering wheel bent out of the line since the end of Stage 2.
Gregoire Munster overtook Thierry Neuville for the ninth position, but the M-Sport Ford driver was not able to use the experience he has from Rally Latvia since his participation in ERC the recent years.
The current championship leader is just 0,2 seconds behind Munster and was frustrated with the road sweeping.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after the end of SS4:
Photo Credits: Toyota
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