Martins Sesks delivered an impressive drive to claim the lead at the inaugural Rally Saudi Arabia on Thursday morning, while World Rally Championship title contender Kalle Rovanpera suffered a costly puncture.
Returning M-Sport-Ford driver Sesks almost completed a clean sweep of stage wins, which was only denied by a small mistake in stage four. The Latvian, who benefited from a cleaner road position, on the all-new rough gravel stages took a 1.3s lead over Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux heading into midday service with Toyota’s Sami Pajari, third, 1.7s adrift.
In the title battle, all three championship contenders were hampered by the road cleaning effect, but it was Sebastien Ogier that headed championship leader Elfyn Evans in seventh position, with Rovanpera (24 points behind Evans) in 10th after his puncture delay.
The loop started with an extremely sandy desert stage that offered drivers the ability to take more risks than the rocky stages that followed. The stage seemingly became quicker with every pass, although the sand did cover rocks for those behind.
Sesks, who started the day in third, delivered a blistering start to claim only his third career WRC stage win by 0.3s from Toyota’s Sami Pajari with Ogier the best of the title contenders in third.
Ogier managed to take a whopping 12.8s out of Evans, who declared he was too cautious during his run through the stage. Rovanpera fared better than Evans but was still 5.9s adrift of Sesks' pace. Fourmaux headed the Hyundai charge ahead of Thierry Neuville, who broke his i20 N's windscreen following a heavy landing after a jump.
The time was enough for Sesks to leap into the rally lead by 1.2s from Ogier, who moved to second while overnight leader Ott Tanak struggled to find a rhythm and dropped to sixth overall.
Conditions for the next test [stage 3 Moon Stage 1, 20.12km] were a stark contrast to the previous test. The sandy roads were replaced by brutal rocky conditions increasing the risk of punctures.
Neuville was among those to suffer in the rough conditions as the reigning world champion picked up a right rear puncture towards the end of the demanding stage. Luckily, the Belgian only dropped 15.2s but fell to sixth behind Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta.
Sesks again set the pace at the front as he racked up another stage win this time by a stunning 4.3s margin over Fourmaux, which extended his rally lead to 7.3s as the latter slotted into second overall.
The road cleaning effect took its toll on the title contenders again. Rovanpera emerged as the fastest of the trio albeit 18.4s behind stage winner Sesks. Ogier dropped 23.4s while Evans was 24.6s off the pace.
“This one is probably the worst [for road cleaning] and I had not a great rhythm either,” said Evans.
Ogier added: “There was a little bit of caution and much more risk than the previous one because it is more rocky.”
Evans’ difficult morning continued in the final stage of the loop [Khulays 1, 11.33km], an even rougher test than the previous stage. Evans missed a junction that resulted in the Welshman having to briefly reverse back onto the road that cost valuable seconds.
Ogier had no such dramas and managed to take another 7.8s out of the championship leader. However, team-mate and fellow title rival Rovanpera hit trouble picking up a left rear puncture that cost the Finn 49.6s after electing not to stop and hang the wheel, which was the correct call.
“I didn’t hit absolutely anything,” said a frustrated Rovanpera. “It just sums up this year quite well it is all the time like this, and all these punctures are coming from out of nowhere. It is what it is.”
Sesks appeared on course to take the stage, but made a mistake at the same Junction that caught out Evans. It resulted in his lead being reduced to 1.3s over Fourmaux. Pajari took the stage win by 0.8s from Forumaux as 1.7s covered the top three.
Tanak recovered the early lost ground to end the loop in fourth [+14.8s] ahead of Neuville and Katsuta. Ogier held seventh [+27.6s] in front of Evans [+50.3s} with five-time Dakar rally winner Nasser Al-Attiyah and Rovanpera completing the top 10, ahead of M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster.
M-Sport-Ford’s Josh McErlean became the first driver to hit trouble, picking up a front right puncture from a rut at a junction in the opening stage of the day. The Irishman stopped to change the wheel and lost more than two minutes. McErlean and co-driver Eoin Treacy also battled an intercom issue throughout the stage.
The crews will repeat the trio of stages this afternoon before concluding the day’s action with a blast through the 5.22km Jameel Motorsport Super Special stage.
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