This year, Sesks is contesting about half of the WRC rounds with M-Sport’s Ford Puma Rally1 car. The season has been a challenging one for him – and the gruelling Greek rally proved no exception.
The Latvian driver suffered a puncture early in the event. In addition, he was forced to retire from the opening day before the final stage due to a fuel-related issue.
During the final two days, Sesks focused on gathering experience.
“Coming here for the first time ever, and I was driving a Rally1 car. This was a tough rally because it was not easy to manage the stages – they were changing quite a bit. In a few places, you have to be really careful, and in a few places, you have to push a little bit because the road allows you to,” Sesks explained.
“I think the toughest part was just trying to absorb all the information — like doing the first pass and then understanding, oh, I have to do this and that for the second pass. So that was part of the learning. The Power Stage was not bad, and I think a few bits in the rally were quite positive.”
Sesks’ strengths lie in the faster rallies, where he impressed last season in his Rally1 debut. This year, however, he hasn’t been able to show similar flashes of speed.
“I think nothing’s been easy this year. So this was just one of the tough points, tough checks. If you’re asking me if this was tough for us — yes — but this whole year has been tough on us. This was just checking the box,” Sesks said bluntly.
For Sesks, the most important thing was to learn from the new conditions while behind the wheel of a top-level car. Every kilometre helps lay the groundwork for the future.
“If we have the opportunity to do this rally next year, it’ll be like two times easier. At least you have the experience to take from,” Sesks summed up.
Next, Sesks will take on an event more suited to his strengths when the fast gravel roads of Rally Estonia host the next WRC round in just over two weeks.
