Sesks loses ground to direct rivals in Saturday morning at Rally Finland
Latvian crew Mārtiņš Sesks and Reinis Francis remain fifth at Rally Finland after losing ground to direct rivals on Saturday morning. Oliver Solberg extended his advantage to 32.4 seconds, while Adrien Fourmaux reduced his deficit to 13.7 seconds.
Latvian crew Mārtiņš Sesks and Reinis Francis failed to match their direct rivals during Saturday morning's stages at Rally Finland. Elfyn Evans won the 11th stage, while Sesks and Francis finished eighth, conceding 12.7 seconds to the rally leader. More importantly, they lost 7.6 seconds to Oliver Solberg in the overall standings and 4.3 seconds to Adrien Fourmaux.
The 12th stage, which has not yet fully finished, saw Sami Pajari fastest among the elite drivers. Sesks and Francis were seventh, 6.7 seconds behind. Their rivals again fared better: Solberg extended his lead by another 1.2 seconds, while Fourmaux closed the gap by 1.1 seconds.
After 12 stages, the Latvians keep fifth overall, but Solberg's advantage has grown from 23.6 to 32.4 seconds, and Fourmaux's deficit has shrunk from 19.1 to 13.7 seconds. Overall leader Sébastien Ogier took third and second place in the morning stages, reducing his lead over Evans to 13.8 seconds.
Sesks was the fastest Ford driver today, while his Irish teammate Joshua Makerlin has dropped to eighth overall. Six more stages are planned for Saturday, with the final two coming on Sunday.
Overall standings after 12 stages: Ogier, Evans +13.8, Pajari +23.2, Solberg +47.8, Sesks +1:20.2, Fourmaux +1:33.9, Katsuta +2:41.3, Makerlin +2:53.8.
