Scandinavia ERC podium like a win for Sesks

That’s the view of Mārtiṇš Sesks, who built on his recent wins in Poland and Latvia by finishing third in Sweden behind Oliver Solberg and Hayden Paddon aboard his Team MRF Tyres-entered Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.

But Sesks had to fight his way onto the podium in Karlstad after he completed leg one in fifth position. After a battle with Nikolay Gryazin on Saturday morning, Sesks took third when the luckless Mikko Heikkilä was forced to change a damaged rear wheel on SS14. He completed the event with a 3.3sec advantage over Gryazin, who was also driving a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.

“The rally has been amazing, it was a real comeback for us,” said Sesks, 23. “On Friday we were in a dark place and then some small shines of light were coming to us and this result feels more like a win to us. The more we understood the rally and how our package works here helped the performance and it was just about the experience.”

Latvian Sesks heads to Rally di Roma Capitale, the second Tarmac round of the ERC season from 28-30 July, holding the provisional runner-up spot in the title standings, 34 points behind leader Paddon.

“We got really good points [in Sweden] and now for Tarmac,” Sesks said. “We are really working on [improving our performance on Tarmac] this season and already in Canarias, okay I didn’t feel really well there, but it was already some good pace there.”

The points Sesks scored for finishing third on BAUHAUS Royal Rally of Scandinavia means Team MRF Tyres holds a 45-point advantage in the race to win the FIA European Rally Championship for Teams. MRF Tyres Dealer Team is second in the provisional standings, one point ahead of BRC Racing Team.