Estonian Volver wins Biķernieki rally sprint; Prime Minister Kulbergs takes historic car cup

Estonian driver Karl Martin Volver's crew won the overall standings of the “Latvija” rally sprint, a car rally held at the Biķernieki circuit last weekend, the organisers told the news agency LETA. Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs also competed and won the Latvian historic car rally cup category.

How the race for victory unfolded

Volver drove a Škoda Fabia Rally2. He laid the groundwork for the win in Saturday night's stages, building a lead of one minute and 4.77 seconds over runner-up Aron Domžala. On Sunday the Estonian extended his advantage further. The winners completed the distance in 50 minutes and 41.81 seconds.

Domžala posted the second-best time in all seven stages. Estonian Aalan Popov finished three minutes and 3.24 seconds behind the winner.

Latvian crews and other classifications

The fastest Latvian crew was last year's winners Mārtiņš Ločmelis and Harijs Vējiņš in a Subaru Impreza STI. They had to deal with technical problems on Saturday, but on Sunday climbed from eighth to fifth place.

In the Latvian Rally Championship's LRČ1 classification, Volver took the round win, Lukass Leivats was fastest in LRČ4, and Dans Leščs won LRČ6. In the final round of the “Mārtiņš Sesks MRF Tyres Junior Challenge”, a development programme for young drivers, Kārlis Dzenītis and Jānis Strazdiņš won the U-25 class, while Mārtiņš Dreibe and Aigars Tīdmanis won U-18.

The battle in the Latvian Rally Sprint Cup was especially tense. Before the sixth and final stage, Kristaps Laipnieks and Kārlis Jansons (BMW 325) were 10.36 seconds ahead of Uģis Dombrovskis and Jurģis Seržāns (BMW 325). Dombrovskis clawed back 7.58 seconds in the last stage, but Laipnieks held on to win by 2.78 seconds.

Prime Minister's success in the historic car cup

In the Latvian historic car rally cup, Andris Kulbergs won together with co-driver Andis Veinbergs in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI. The crew was fastest in the VRK11 class. Arnis Alksnis and Māris Kulšs (BMW 320) took first place in VRK12.