The team principal of M-Sport Ford, Richard Millener, says that his team wants to see Martins Sesks finishing at the top five in Chile this week while he reveals that he is not in his control of his securing a Rally1 seat next year.
The Latvian driver made his WRC debut with the non-hybrid Puma in Poland three months ago where he set the second-fastest time in one stage of Friday morning and completed this loop at the second place behind the rally leader Andreas Mikkelsen. His next outing was his home event, but he got behind the wheel of the hybrid Puma Rally1 where he was fighting for the top positions with three WRC Champions (Ott Tanak, Sebastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera) until Powerstage where his car suffered from transmission issues just 600 meters into the stage resulting in dropping from third to seventh overall. M-Sport Ford and WRC Promoter gave to him another chance and will do his third outing of the season at the top level at Rally Chile, but once again he will drive the non-hybrid Puma. However, he was the second-fastest driver at the end of the Shakedown session yesterday and showed his potential again. Last but not least, it must be mentioned that his name has linked with Hyundai and M-Sport Ford ahead of the new season considering his achievements and his talent.
"I think there is a lot of interest from a lot of parties about what he's capable of and, there's a lot of discussion about Latvia, Poland being very similar events, home events and him knowing them well, can it be repeated in some way?", Millener said.
"I don't want to expect that he could repeat challenging for a podium in Latvia.
"What we want to see is another rally with no issues and him get to the end with no mistakes and effectively have a good result, which I think could be done by being clever as well.
"The title fight is going to be pretty big and Chile is a pretty tricky rally as well.
"It is fast and technical I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a couple of accidents.
"If he can get top five again, fantastic, that’s more the goal, so it’s a bit of an extended audition, I guess.
"But certainly, I’m not in a position to say that he's going to be signing with us for next year.
"It's just a case of trying to see what else we can do for these junior drivers.
"I think he's already proven what he's capable of and this opportunity come about through M-Sport pushing as well, but also through promoter and Martins with his own thing.
"It's a good opportunity for us to see what throwing a completely new environment at him with not a lot of notice.
"What he can do and how he approaches it".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: M-Sport
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