Sesks, who is competing in selected WRC rounds this year, crashed out early in Rally Sardinia. His Ford Puma Rally1 sustained such heavy damage that M-Sport decided to withdraw the Latvian driver from the rally entirely.
Now, M-Sport is facing a race against time before the next WRC round. Sesks is scheduled to compete in the Acropolis Rally in Greece in just over two weeks—but his car needs to be repaired in a very short timeframe.
M-Sport team principal Richard Millener told DirtFish that the team began dismantling Sesks’ car while still in Sardinia. The car could have been sent to the factory in England earlier, but that would have been pointless—most of the team was still working on-site at the rally.
Instead, as much work as possible was done on the car during the event weekend before it was flown to England. From there, the clock starts ticking to get the car ready in time for Greece.
“The next event is just over two weeks away. We’ve got only four days back in the UK to repair the same chassis,” Millener explained.
In the worst-case scenario, Sesks’ participation in the Acropolis Rally could be in jeopardy. But according to Millener, that’s not really an option.
“It’s still quite a mission to get back to Cumbria, fix it, then turn it around and get it out to Greece. We were already very tight on time, but sometimes rallying throws these challenges at you.”
“I know the team’s been there before, we’ll be there again. We always get back up, keep going and that’s exactly what we’ll do again,” Millener said.
M-Sport’s Rally Sardinia weekend was dismal overall. The team’s major trouble came on Friday’s second stage, where in addition to Sesks, both Josh McErlean and Grégoire Munster also damaged their cars and retired. However, unlike Sesks, they were able to rejoin the rally on Saturday.
“Needless to say, it’s been a tough weekend for the team here in Sardinia. Losing three cars in one stage was heartbreaking to say the least, especially after a really positive opening stage on Friday morning,” Millener admitted.
“But the team made a heroic effort to get Greg and Josh’s cars back out so they could get some important mileage under their belts and I believe it has been a valuable learning experience for everyone.”
