Mãrtiņš Sesks leads a round of the World Rally Championship for the first time, setting the pace on the first gravel stage of Rally Saudi Arabia.
Making his first WRC start since Rally Finland in August, the Latvian won SS2 by 0.3 seconds to lead the event by 1.2s over the championship-chasing Sébastien Ogier.
It’s the first time M-Sport has led a WRC event since Adrien Fourmaux at last year’s Rally Japan.
“Crazy, uh? We are not only fast in Latvia it seems,” Sesks smiled.
Ogier is in the best position of the championship contenders however, with Kalle Rovanperä seventh and Elfyn Evans down in ninth.
Sami Pajari was second fastest on SS2 Al Fasallyah 1, leaving him 1.3s down on Sesks with Adrien Fourmaux fourth (+3.0s).
Both he and Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville (+3.4s) suffered broken windshields after heavy landings over a jump.
Ott Tänak is sixth ahead of Rovanperä, Takamoto Katsuta, Evans – whose already 14.9s off the lead – and Nasser Al-Attiyah who rounds out the top 10.
Josh McErlean lost over two minutes after stopping to change a tire which was debeaded by a rut at a junction. He also experienced intercom issues to compound his woes.
