Martins Sesks takes his second Junior WRC victory

Porto (Portugal), 23 May 2021: Martins Sesks took his second FIA Junior WRC event win of his career on Rally de Portugal after a long and hard-fought rally.
 
Sesks, together with co-driver Renars Francis, cruised to victory on Sunday’s stages, starting the day with over three minutes in hand to Sami Pajari who finished the rally in second, claiming his first podium of the 2021 season.
 
Finishing the rally in third place and rounding out the podium were Robert Virves and Sander Pruul, collecting their first silverware since their explosive Junior WRC debut on Rally Estonia in 2020.
 
The rally was by no means easy for any of the 2021 Junior WRC crews, seeing multiple changes for the lead and a total of five different stage winners spread across 19 special stages.
 
Pajari took the first Wolf Stage Win Point of the rally and with it the lead, but it was Jon Armstrong who led for a large part of Friday’s stages.
 
The Northern Irishman took four Wolf Stage Wins in a row between stages two and five to build up a 36.4 second lead heading into stage six. His lead collapsed on stage six after suffering a puncture, losing over four minutes and falling back to fourth, handing the lead back to Pajari who was taking much more conservative approach to the rally. 
 
Martin Koci claimed his first Wolf Stage Win Point of the rally on SS6 while sitting third in the classification as Armstrong bounced back on Mortagua, grabbing another Wolf Stage Win Point.
 
Friday concluded with Pajari winning the Lousada Super Special Stage leading Koci by 25.7 seconds with Martins Sesks lying third after a tough day of all-out gravel action. William Creighton impressed many onlookers by consistently posting second placed stage times on Friday, but an untimely driveshaft failure put a stop to his impressive pace on stage five. Lauri Joona was on the hunt for stage wins on Friday but ultimately suffered a similar fate on the stage four.
 
Raul Badiu’s rally didn’t start as the Romanian intended to, breaking a steering arm on stage four, when the Romanian’s car returned to service, additional engine damage was detected resulting in Baidu having to retire from the rally entirely.
 
Saturday presented a brutal rate attrition with it as Junior WRC embarked on some of the roughest stages in the championship this year. 
 
Joona had regrouped following a disappointing day on Friday by winning the opening stage of the day to open his account of Wolf Stage Win Points while Koci closed to within 11 seconds of Pajari’s lead.
 
Sesks claimed his first stage win of the rally to mark five different stage winners on SS10 while also taking the lead as a steering issue hampered young Pajari.
 
Armstrong bagged another stage win on the longest stage of the rally through Amarante, just 1.7 seconds ahead of Sesks after 37.92-kilometre duel. This would be the highlight of Armstrong’s day who ultimately retired from the rally owing to terminal engine damage. 
 
Joona claimed another Wolf Stage Win Point on SS13 with Sesks taking top honours on the second pass of Amarante to compound his impressive lead as more bad luck hit Joona with a driveshaft failure. 
 
The drama saw Robert Virves promoted to third position after a difficult Friday seeing the Estonian sustain two punctures as he endeavoured to put together a clean rally on Saturday.
 
Sesks would round out the day on the Porto Super Special Stage with another Wolf Stage Point to give him a total of three stage with Sunday’s stages left to run.
 
Sunday was a much less dramatic affair on Rally de Portugal but the competition for Wolf Stage Win Points was still tense as Koci headed into the day with the aim of maximising every opportunity for stage wins. The Slovakian claimed the first speed test of the day with Joona responding on the one and only pass of the Montim stage. 
 
Koci bagged the next stage win on the first pass of the legendary Fafe stage denying Joona by exactly two seconds as Sesks had settled into a comfortable rhythm to bring his Fiesta Rally4 home for victory. Koci made it two top stage times in a row by the penultimate stage again, marginally ahead of Joona as the pair were leagues ahead of the rest of the Junior WRC field.
 
Virves also did everything he needed to do to make sure he could take the final step on the podium in a similar way to Pajari, with both drivers having an uneventful finish to the rally.
 
Ultimately the final stage of the rally and second pass of Fafe was cancelled, crowning Sesks the winner of Rally de Portugal with Pajari second and Virves third. 
 
Maciej Woda, FIA Junior WRC Championship Manager: “Congratulations to Martins and Renars for their second Junior WRC victory. This rally has been incredibly tough for all competitors and the level of competition did not disappoint at all with five different stage winners. I think we are going to see this year’s Wolf Stage Win Points make a huge difference to the championship as they really help give crews a fighting chance for more points when they faced tough challenges this weekend. Sami Pajari did exactly what he needed to after Croatia with a good clean rally and a strong podium position while also collecting some stage wins. I have also been quite impressed with Robert Virves here in Portugal, he had a difficult day on Friday but has worked very hard since then and shown great maturity to arrive at this podium position. William Creighton has proved this weekend that he is all round competitive rally driver with some great times this weekend on gravel, I am really looking forward to seeing what he”
 
1. Martins Sesks / Renars Francis
“It feels good and it’s a big relief after a rough and tough weekend. Basically it was really tough and long all week so it’s nice to be here, especially in first place. I cannot compare this to Estonia, in Estonia there was a fight between the others whereas here it was a fight with the stage and trying to survive.”
 
2. Sami Pajari / Marko Salminen +03:11.8
“I really should be happy, it was such a difficult rally for all of us so we need to be happy. I think we did well, we tried to look at the condition of the stages to see where we could go fast and catch the points. There were also some difficult sections where we lost a lot of times, it was all about being clever in the difficult places.”
 
3. Robert Virves / Sander Pruul +11:48.8
“If I saw the speed of the other guys, it was quite obvious that not all of them can last that long with their speed on these roads. I think it’s been the most difficult rally for me so far. Mostly because of the road conditions where you can’t drive fast as it is so hard on the car but at the same time we have stage points to fight for so you have to find a compromise.”
 
4. Martin Koci / Petr Tesisnky +38:44.8
“The only chance to make the mood better after restarting the rally was to make some stage points. We have three from today, one stage was cancelled, we enjoyed it today for sure. I think everyone here is super competitive, it’s all about the tactics and staying on the road. This time we didn’t have good a luck with the car, hopefully next time will be more about the speed itself.”
 
5. William Creighton / Liam Regan +40:44.9 
“It’s been a really tricky rally for everybody and unfortunately we had an issue with the driveshaft yesterday but we were able to manage things today. I think the encouraging think was that we were able to set some good stage times. It’s been a good weekend. It’s definitely an encouraging weekend and plenty to build on and work on for Estonia.”
 
6. Lauri Joona / Ari Koponen +01:11:09.1
“We have a good fight with Martin Koci today, we only got one stage point but more is always better. We are happy to finish. I think this rally is the toughest rally in Junior WRC this season, we will see what happens in Estonia where I think we are strongest.”