Martins Sesks’ top-flight World Rally Championship debut at Rally Poland is “one of many strongest shortly” in line with M-Sport group principal Richard Millener.
Final 12 months’s European Rally Championship runner-up has stepped as much as rallying’s prime Rally1 class with M-Sport as a part of two-round deal, supported by the WRC, that additionally contains his residence WRC spherical in Latvia subsequent month.
Sesks headed to Poland with having performed just one check within the Ford Puma however has lit up the levels to finish Friday in fifth, solely 7.7s adrift of the rally lead.
So as to add additional gloss to his efficiency, Sesks is operating a non-hybrid powered model of the automotive that’s 130 horsepower down on his Rally1 rivals.
The 24-year-old shocked himself by clocking a second quickest stage time in stage two simply 0.3s behind the benchmark set by rally chief Hyundai’s Andreas Mikkelsen. It prompted a stage finish response that has gone viral on social media.
Whereas Sesks was assisted by a powerful highway place, the Latvian constantly posted top-five stage instances.
When requested if he may imagine what he had achieved, he mentioned: “I don’t have something to reply to this as a result of for me, one of many issues that will be high-quality for me for Saturday was to not be the final Rally1 automotive, so I’ve somebody in entrance to see the traces. We’ve got accomplished that job.
Martins Sesks, M-Sport Ford World Rally Group
Picture by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
“Let’s not discuss concerning the podium simply but. It’s all about ending the rally and to study. It’s unimaginable.
“All the pieces is troublesome within the automotive and that’s what makes it simple as a result of it’s all troublesome and it’s important to consider all the pieces.”
M-Sport group principal Millener labelled the efficiency as one the most effective first days for a driver within the WRC top-flight.
“It’s positively up there, I might say it is among the strongest first day debuts we’ve got seen shortly,” mentioned Millener.
“Now the important thing bit is protecting his cool for the remainder of the rally.
“In the event you have a look at his strengths, they’re these sort of roads, and he’s not a sluggish driver anyway, and he had good highway place.
“However however, he had by no means pushed the automotive for greater than a day and he’s straight right into a World Rally Championship and in opposition to the most effective there and doing what he has accomplished on each stage is fairly enjoyable to observe. It’s fairly spectacular.”
Sesks ended Friday 0.2s behind M-Sport common Adrien Fourmaux having been the highest Ford runner till the day’s ultimate stage.