Ogier is third in the race, 21.6 seconds behind his teammate Kalle Rovanperä, who leads the rally. The French champion finally got back to a fast gravel rally and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The last time Ogier competed in a fast gravel rally was in Finland nearly three years ago. During his peak years, Ogier almost always started every gravel race as the first car and suffered from his starting position. This time, there were at least three cars ahead of him, so the feeling was significantly better. Ogier said that in Latvia, the first cars faced an incredibly tough position.
“Was it more enjoyable? Definitely more enjoyable! It was tough to really fight for the top but we are still on our target so far. The cleaning effect was really bad and worse than you will have in Finland most of the time. After a couple of years not doing this kind of fast event, I enjoyed it to be in the car,” Ogier told RallyJournal.com.
“I think it’s been a good day. We’ve seen today that road position was playing massive role more.”
Ogier is not forcing a push to the lead, as both the French star and Rovanperä are only driving selected rallies this year, so the team’s points are the most important. On Friday, Rovanperä had a slightly better starting position, which Ogier said decided the outcome.
“I had three car in front and he had five. In this condition we’ve seen it make too much of a difference. Kalle is fast enough that if you have same condition, it’s already always a tough fight. But with this there was not too much more we could do,” Ogier summarised.
“And at the end we are not really fighting Kalle anyway. We are fighting mainly the others. In that prospect, it’s been a very good day for the team. We have to carry on like this tomorrow,” Ogier continued, referring to Hyundai’s poor day in Latvia.
On Saturday, seven special stages will be run in Latvia. The rally ends on Sunday.
