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For immediate release
Thursday, May 15th, 2025

M-SPORT FORD’S SESKS FASTEST ON SHAKEDOWN AT BALTAR

MATOSINHOS (PORTUGAL): The M-Sport Ford WRT crew of  Mārtiņš Sesks and Renārs Francis clocked the fastest time of 3min 52.3sec on their fourth pass through the 2.94km Shakedown stage at Baltar to top the times on Thursday morning.

Used by drivers and teams to optimise their gravel set-up for the weekend ahead, the stage was the first timed competition in this year’s 58th Vodafone Rally of Portugal. The event officially gets underway in Coimbra this evening.

Sesks has only been to the event once in the past but the Latvian proved he has the pace to match his more illustrious rivals this weekend. He said: “It was amazing. We are trying new things in shakedown, learning things. I have done the rally once with a front-wheel drive Fiesta in the Juniors. I just remember names of cities and that’s it!”

Two-time World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanperä was just sixth-tenths of a second behind the Ford Puma driver in his Toyota Yaris and defending champion Thierry Neuville was third.

Series leader Elfyn Evans was the first into the stage and the Welshman carded a time of 3min 57.8sec before finishing the session in sixth. After the first pass through the dry and dusty shakedown, Evans said: “Historically, it has not been an easy job to open the road here but we have to do what we can with it. Tomorrow is a big day, a long day, but it is the same for everyone.”

Rovanperä shaved 3.1 seconds off Evans’s opening time and was the quickest driver on the first pass before running even quicker with his fastest time of 3min 52.9sec on pass two. “It’s nice to be back on gravel. Portugal is always a nice rally. I am sure we won’t have the same pace here as we had in Canarias. I feel we have quite a lot of work still to do on gravel.”

World Champion Thierry Neuville said: “We will focus on ourselves and try to have a good rally. Three days with different conditions and a long day tomorrow.”

Sébastien Ogier clocked the fourth quickest time. The eight-time World Champion said: “I have experience of many things but no experience of these tyres. I have not driven a single kilometre in dry conditions on the test. These tyres in rain – scary to drive. This was very slippery with low grip.”

Fifth-placed Ott Tänak said: “The feeling is good for a positive weekend. This is a rally we enjoy a lot. We just need to find a good set-up and a good feeling in the car.”

Takamoto Katsuta said: “I like this rally. I try to do my best but I am not sure this tyre is working.”

“We are excited to be here,” said Adrien Fourmaux. “The atmosphere is really nice. This is always a special one. It is always great to be on gravel. We can enjoy sliding the car.”

Sami Pajari said: “It’s a nice feeling to be back on gravel. I am trying to go steady again and not to do anything special at the beginning and try to enjoy it.”

Grégoire Munster said: “I think the road position will play a little less than usual with the rain we had this week.”

Josh McErlean was embroiled in a frantic WRC2 tussle last year. The Irishman said: “It was so nice a rally last year fighting for WRC2. Wonderful roads and wonderful people. It’s nice to be back in a Rally1 car. The challenge this weekend is massive.”

Diogo Salvi brought up the rear of the Rally1 field. The Portuguese businessman said: “Tremendous and you slide a lot, that’s the positive. The minus is it’s very demanding physically.”

Oliver Solberg, Gus Greensmith and Robert Virves were the quickest of the early WRC2 entrants on the shakedown stage.

2025 Vodafone Rally of Portugal – Shakedown times (Rally1 only @ 10.55hrs)

  1. Mārtiņš Sesks (LAT)/Renārs Francis (LAT) Ford Puma Rally1 3min 52.3sec
  2. Kalle Rovanperä (FIN)/Jonne Halttunen (FIN) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 3min 52.9sec
  3. Thierry Neuville (BEL)/Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 3min 53.2sec
  4. Sébastien Ogier (FRA)/Vincent Landais (FRA) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 3min 54.0sec
  5. Ott Tänak (EST)/Martin Järveoja (EST) Hyundai i20 N Rally1     3min 54.1sec
  6. Elfyn Evans (GBR)/Scott Martin (GBR) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 3min 54.3sec
  7. Joshua McErlean (IRL)/Eoin Treacy (IRL) Ford Puma Rally1 3min 54.9sec
  8. Takamoto Katsuta (JPN)/Aaron Johnston (IRL) Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 3min 55.0sec
  9. Adrien Fourmaux (FRA)/Alexandre Coria (FRA) Hyundai i20 N Rally1 3min 55.5sec
  10. Sami Pajari (FIN)/Marko Salminen (FIN) Toyota GR Yaris Rally 3min 56.0sec
  11. Grégoire Munster (LUX)/Louis Louka (BEL) Ford Puma Rally1 3min 56.3sec
  12. Diogo Salvi (POR)/Axel Coronado (ESP) Ford Puma Rally1 4min 03.9sec

Ends

 

 

Published On: 15 May 2025