Martinš Sesks handed 20-second penalty for lateness at Rally Estonia
After a crash in the warm-up that required repairs, Martinš Sesks received a 20-second time penalty for being two minutes late to the first stage, dropping from 6th to 10th overall.
The opening stage of Rally Estonia brought challenges for the Latvian crew of Martinš Sesks and Francis Lācis. During the warm-up, Sesks hit a barrier, damaging the right wing and steering system. The Latvian mechanics managed to fix the car in time for the stage start, but the team was two minutes late, resulting in a 20-second penalty. This dropped Sesks from sixth place after the stage to tenth, with a time of 10:29.2 (25.2 seconds behind the leader). The fastest time was set by Finland's Sami Pajari in a Toyota (10:04.0). He was followed by France's Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai, +2.4s) and Sweden's Oliver Solberg (Toyota, +2.6s). The top five also included Sébastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville. Meanwhile, Japan's Takamoto Katsuta celebrated his 100th WRC start; he finished the first stage in seventh place, 10.4 seconds off the lead.
