Ogier beat his teammate Kalle Rovanperä by three-tenths of a second. At the same time, Ogier strengthened his position in second place in the race. M-Sport Ford’s Latvian sensation Martins Sesks is 4.7 seconds behind Ogier.
“The stage was really fun and fast. I wish it had been longer. So far, the whole race has been really enjoyable. Let’s hope the same continues tomorrow,” Ogier said.
“We made a few mistakes that cost us some time. Nothing I’ve learned with the Rally2 car applies to this car, so it’s not easy,” Sesks commented.
Rovanperä’s lead in the rally is overwhelming. The gap to Sesks is 41 seconds, with only five special stages remaining.
“It’s been really fun. Even though this was a short stage, the rhythm was good. I had one hard tyre on, which made things a bit difficult, but it went pretty well,” Rovanperä summed up.
In fourth place continues the unlucky warrior Ott Tänak. The Estonian driver hit a Toyota advertisement on the previous stage and had to stop in the middle of the stage. Tänak received a notional time for the special stage but was naturally disappointed that the organisers did not cancel the stage before the incident.
“The first part of the stage had good grip, but then there was even more grip,” Tänak noted.
In fifth place is M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux, ahead of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta. Thierry Neuville is in eighth place ahead of teammate Esapekka Lappi.
Oliver Solberg continues to lead the WRC2 class. Mikko Heikkilä is 26.3 seconds behind the Swede. Sami Pajari is in third place in the class, 6.5 seconds behind Heikkilä.
There is still one short spectator special stage to be run on Saturday. The competition concludes on Sunday.
Rally Latvia standings after SS15/20:
| POS | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1. | Kalle Rovanperä | Toyota | 1:56:53.1 |
| 2. | Sebastien Ogier | Toyota | +41.0 |
| 3. | Martins Sesks | Ford | +45.7 |
| 4. | Ott Tänak | Hyundai | +52.0 |
| 5. | Adrien Fourmaux | Ford | +1:14.7 |
| 6. | Elfyn Evans | Toyota | +1:34.1 |
| 7. | Takamoto Katsuta | Toyota | +1:45.9 |
| 8. | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai | +2:33.7 |
| 9. | Esapekka Lappi | Hyundai | +3:09.5 |
| 10. | Gregoire Munster | Ford | +3:37.6 |
| 11. | Oliver Solberg | Skoda | +6:37.2 |
| 12. | Mikko Heikkilä | Toyota | +7:03.5 |
| 13. | Sami Pajari | Toyota | +7:10.0 |
Rally Latvia Itinerary (CET)
Thursday 18.7. 06:31 Shakedown: Cimdenieki (3.58 km) 19:05 SS1: Bikernieki Track (11.13 km) Friday 19.7. 09:00 SS2: Milzkalne 1 (4.99 km) 09:45 SS3: Tukums 1 (27.56 km) 11:00 SS4: Andumi (17.86 km) 12:50 Tyre fitting zone 13:30 SS5: Milzkalne 2 (4.99 km) 14:15 SS6: Tukums 2 (27.56 km) 15:30 SS7: Strazde (17.44 km) 16:20 SS8: Talsi (20.52 km) Saturday 20.7. 07:20 SS9: Pilskalns (18.87 km) 08:35 SS10: Snepele (17.52 km) 10:30 SS11: Ivande (23.04 km) 12:05 SS12: Vecpils 1 (12.64 km) 13:30 Service (40 min) 15:15 SS13: Podnieki (10.09 km) 16:05 SS14: Vecpils 2 (12.64 km) 18:00 SS15: Dinsdurbe (6.64 km) 19:15 SS16: Liepaja City Stage (2.56 km) Sunday 21.7. 07:55 SS17: Krogzemji 1 (18.70 km) 09:05 SS18: Mazilmaja 1 (13.34 km) 10:55 SS19: Krogzemji 2 (18.70 km) 13:15 SS20: Mazilmaja 2 (13.34 km) *Power Stage
