It quickly became apparent from the start that the Ford drivers wouldn’t be able to match the pace of the stars from Toyota and Hyundai.
In the end, Martins Sesks, Josh McErlean, and Grégoire Munster took the final classified spots in the Rally1 field – excluding Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, who retired before the final stage due to a technical issue. Sesks finished eighth, McErlean ninth, and Munster tenth.
Of the trio, only Sesks managed to break into the top five on a single stage. Otherwise, the M-Sport drivers’ performances remained subdued.
Team principal Richard Millener stressed that the drivers’ performance targets are focused more on long-term development.
“Estonia was always going to be a big challenge with the speed and level of commitment needed here. But the key here was development, not headlines. Josh, Martins, and Grégoire are all learning rally-by-rally, and the pace is coming through,” Millener said.
Particularly for Latvian driver Sesks, expectations were slightly higher given the ultra-fast nature of Rally Estonia. Last summer, he delivered impressive performances at the WRC rounds in Poland and Latvia behind the wheel of the Ford Puma. But in Estonia, he ended up trailing the leaders by more than three and a half minutes.
Still, Sesks tried to take in the experience on the high-speed stages, many of which were lined with supportive Latvian fans.
“It’s been an impressive weekend for our sport and the fans have been amazing – it was really emotional in places to see all the flags. This is the main thing for us. Now we go away to focus on Finland,” said Sesks.
The WRC heads next to Rally Finland, scheduled for next week.
