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For 2024, Latvia joins WRC calendar as a replacement to Estonia, it's northern neighbour. Character of the roads is very fast, flowing and gravelly just like those in Estonia, Finland and Poland. Smooth roads are easy on the cars and there were relatively few retirements even though speeds are very high and it's easy to go off.
Country has some history with rallying but can't claim honour of having national hero as a WRC champion, as does Estonia, nor even as a works team driver.
A refreshing change from most other modern rallies is that in 2024 itinerary, there were plenty of stages were run only once. In general, first edition ran smoothly and spectators were well behaving, the only major hiccup being loose advertising canvas which fell on the road before Ott Tanakäs car arrived there, all in front of the cameras and still it took long time to red flag the stage.
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Rovanpera, Kalle
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Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
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118.63 km/h
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Winner of 2024 event, Kalle Rovanpera, tackling typical smooth and flowing Latvian road amongst fields. Surface is loose and first runners suffer from sweeping effect.
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Other stages were run in more forested area but some of the local roads don't have trees growing next to the road, instead having wide ditches free of obstacles. Such roads offer very fast conditions which are reined in with anti-cut obstacles and artificial chicanes.
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Local hero Marins Sesks driving towards stage start in sandy beach stage in 2024 event. Such stage was a rarity, most action took place in forests and fiels as seen above.
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Driver wins
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Rovanpera, Kalle (1)
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Manufacturer wins
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Toyota (1)
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