Martins Sesks’ top-flight World Rally Championship debut at Rally Poland is “one of many strongest shortly” in accordance with M-Sport workforce principal Richard Millener.
Final yr’s European Rally Championship runner-up has stepped as much as rallying’s high Rally1 class with M-Sport as a part of two-round deal, supported by the WRC, that additionally contains his dwelling WRC spherical in Latvia subsequent month.
Sesks headed to Poland with having carried out just one check within the Ford Puma however has lit up the phases to finish Friday in fifth, solely 7.7s adrift of the rally lead.
So as to add additional gloss to his efficiency, Sesks is working a non-hybrid powered model of the automotive that’s 130 horsepower down on his Rally1 rivals.
The 24-year-old surprised 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 street place, the Latvian persistently posted top-five stage instances.
When requested if he might consider 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 may 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 now have accomplished that job.
Martins Sesks, M-Sport Ford World Rally Crew
Picture by: McKlein / Motorsport Images
“Let’s not speak in regards to the podium simply but. It’s all about ending the rally and to be taught. It’s unbelievable.
“The whole lot is tough within the automotive and that’s what makes it straightforward as a result of it’s all tough and you need to focus on every thing.”
M-Sport workforce 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’d say it is without doubt one of the strongest first day debuts we’ve seen shortly,” mentioned Millener.
“Now the important thing bit is preserving his cool for the remainder of the rally.
“For those who take a look at his strengths, they’re these sort of roads, and he’s not a sluggish driver anyway, and he had good street place.
“However alternatively, he had by no means pushed the automotive for greater than a day and he’s straight right into a World Rally Championship and towards the most effective there and doing what he has accomplished on each stage is fairly enjoyable to look at. 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 remaining stage.