2024 WRC Rally Latvia | 7 talking points

Is Ogier about to go for a ninth title?

Before we move on to the main title contenders, or at least the expected ones, let’s look at a potentially left-field addition. There was a point on the final day of Rally Latvia when even the commentators on RallyTV began to wonder… Is Sébastien Ogier thinking of going for title number nine?

The Frenchman is on a part-time season with Toyota in 2024. Or at least he is at the moment. But he has won twice and finished second three times so far. He currently sits less than 30 points (the max you can score in a rally weekend) off the lead of the championship. So far this season Ogier has seemed happy with wins, not really focusing on the extra points you can get on a Sunday. Not this time. Second on Sunday by a few tenths, and second in the Power Stage by the same. Ogier said after the event that his “target was to score a lot of points”.

Now, this could easily just be to help Toyota out - it currently needs all the help it can get to fight the rapid Hyundai charge in the Manufacturer’s Championship. But, you have to wonder if Ogier is looking at the current title race and thinking “I could have this." And if he did, you bet Toyota wouldn’t say no…

Road sweeping angers Neuville

Meanwhile, in a situation familiar to Ogier from his time leading multiple championships, points leader Thierry Neuville hated every second of his weekend. Such was the nature of the roads in Latvia that at times Neuville might as well have gone out with a broom rather than his Hyundai i20N. 

By the end he was refusing to even comment on it. Earlier he hinted at how much more fun it looked doing a part season, only adding fuel to the rumours that the Belgian might be thinking of calling it a day.

It’s a problem that has been there for decades in the WRC. Run stages in reverse championship order and you advantage the championship leader, do the opposite and you disadvantage them. Ogier was sympathetic when asked about it, but this is just something you need to get through to win championships. Neuville has been stellar this year at just pushing through. He needs to make sure this little moment of letting out the old grumpy Theirry was just that, a moment.

Tänak using fast rallies to his advantage

Meanwhile, gradually pushing himself further up the running order with every rally was team-mate Ott Tänak. But this was to the surprise of no one. A string of gravel rallies, three of which are super fast, play right into the Estonian’s hands. When it gets stoney and quick, barely anyone can get close to Ott.

His criticism of rally control on Saturday was justified - it’s not correct for a driver to come through a corner and find a collapsed advertising arch in his way that had been there for at least a minute. But even then Tanak, often short and serious post-stage, was smiling a little. 

Finland next gives the Hyundai driver another reason to smile. More super fast gravel that Neuville will need to sweep. Right now Tanak is looking like our title favourite.

Rovanperä just cruises back where his career began

A couple of months ago Kalle Rovanperä rolled out of Rally Portugal and made it very clear he wasn’t happy with his own performances this year. Two rallies later he’s got two more winner’s trophies in the cabinet. Consider the mindset fully reset.

Latvia means a lot to Rovanpera. Yes, he’s Finnish, but when he started his rallying career he was so talented so young that he couldn’t really progress anywhere in Europe. Latvia has slightly different competition rules so the future WRC champ could start rallying at just14. 

Now, just under a decade later, he won the country’s first ever WRC round. And he did it at a relative canter. So much so that he was barely a focus for coverage the whole weekend. In fact, it almost seems unfair just how much fun Kalle seems to be having this year while his former rivals all stress about the championship.

Oh, by the way, he won the Latvian championship in 2015.

Cruel ending, but Sesks is the real deal

Motorsport is so cruel sometimes. That’s not news. But even then it would have taken the absolute heart of stone not to feel gutted for Martins Sesks when the coverage cut to his Ford Puma suddenly over a minute down on the Power Stage. Until that moment he seemed on for an incredible podium on home soil in his first ever rally in a full hybrid Rally1 car. It was heartbreaking.

But, that should not be, and will not be, the story. Sesks had spent time between Rally Poland and his home round trying to play down the expectations that built after his stellar first Rally1 appearance. All that went out of the window on Friday when he won stage three of the rally. And the idea that people wouldn’t get excited seemed laughable when he won stage four as well. 

Yes, he is Latvian. So he did have some knowledge of the stages. But that does not matter. This is the WRC not a lower category. To perform so well, the first time you have ever driven a hybrid rally car is a showcase of all the factors you need to be a top rally driver, not just pure speed. He’ll be back.

Let’s go back to Latvia

How good did Rally Latvia look? Is there anything better to watch than full fat rally cars attacking extremely fast flowing stages? Latvia’s stages were quick and challenging, the fan zones were packed, the drivers (except Thierry Neuville) loved it. This one-off step up from the ERC was a total success.

Ok there’s probably a question to ask about whether it’s a good idea not to repeat stages when there’s so much sweeping needed, but it meant we got to see more of these incredible roads. Well, sort of. Presumably Crowdstrike-related issues meant the WRC lost pretty much all onboards, leaving the excellent RallyTV commentary team talking over live maps for stage after stage. But that’s not Latvia’s fault. It was like Rally Poland with fans who stayed in sensible places. Let’s go back please WRC.

Everything to play for

Well. We’re roughly two-thirds of the way through the 2024 WRC season. Eight rallies down, five to go. And while Theirry Neuville has held the championship lead since Monte Carlo, that’s far from the full story. 

Elfyn Evans has tracked him the whole way, and has in fact finished ahead on all but two rallies this year. He is 13 points back – only one less than you can win on a single Sunday. Ott Tänak is the form driver in the title race. He’s eight points back.Tänak won 2.5 times that many points this weekend.

And then there’s the wildcard of Sébastien Ogier. More wins than any of those ahead of him this year and the knowledge of how to win this eight previous times. It’s so tight that right now, you couldn’t totally rule out Adrian Fourmaux.

For once, we’re not going to talk about the points system’s vagaries, but there’s no denying it’s making this a proper championship battle.

Images courtesy of Motosport Images