DOLGELLAU’S Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin have finished fifth overall at the FIA World Rally Championship’s first Rally Latvia, an event where road position was a significant factor on the loose gravel stages.

Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team claimed a second successive one-two finish after Kalle Rovanperä stormed to victory ahead of Sébastien Ogier.

Returning to the high-speed gravel roads where he began his rally career as a teenager, Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen led the rally from the opening stage in Riga on Thursday night. They won 11 stages along the way – recording their 200th career fastest time on Saturday morning – as they marked their 50th start at the highest level of the WRC with their 14th victory.

Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais made an impressive return to action after being forced to miss the previous round in Poland – which made this Ogier’s first fast European gravel rally for almost three years. He was already the top debutant on Latvian soil when he ended Friday in third place, before taking second away from the local favourite Mārtiņš Sesks (M-Sport Ford) on Saturday.

With its one-two result, TGR-WRT took maximum manufacturers’ points from the overall standings plus second and third in the separate Super Sunday classification – where Ogier was denied top spot by just 0.2 seconds. With the Power Stage results also factored in, the team closes to within one point of the championship lead.

There was also a double podium for the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 in the WRC2 category, with Mikko Heikkilä finishing in second place for Step-Five Motorsport and Sami Pajari third for Printsport after an exciting battle between the two Finnish drivers. Pajari, who won WRC2 on the two previous rounds in Sardinia and Poland, will make his Rally1 debut with TGR-WRT on the next event in Finland.

Running second on the road on Friday, Elfyn Evans (driver, car 33) still did well relative to his championship rivals and, finishing fourth in the Super Sunday classification, has closed to within 13 points of the series leader.

He said: “Today was all about trying to get as many extra points as we could. On the whole it was not going too badly for most of the day, but to just fall short by a few tenths of a second in the Power Stage was annoying. 

“At least it’s been a weekend where we gained some points, which is better than nothing. We always want to do better but it’s been a difficult weekend with the road cleaning and we were always a bit on the back foot from there. 

“Now we’ll look forward to Rally Finland which is always an enjoyable event.”