The FIA is conducting a review into a “potentially dangerous” incident where an inflatable promotional arch halted Ott Tanak during the World Rally Championship’s visit to Latvia.

The WRC title contender collected a deflated promotional arch that was lying in the road after Toyota’s Elfyn Evans made contact with the structure while recovering from a wild slide moments earlier.

The stage wasn’t red-flagged quickly enough to avoid Tanak’s i20 N becoming entangled in the felled structure. Officials eventually red-flagged the stage to clear the incident and issued nominal times to Tanak, Adrien Fourmaux and Takamoto Katsuta, who were also impacted. 

When television crews spoke to Tanak at the end of the stage, the frustrated driver took aim at race control, saying: “I think this exactly describes how we are in safe hands in terms of race control. Probably they were having a nice meal and good wine when on the cameras you could see the road is blocked and there is a car coming. Well done race control, you are really taking care of us.”

“We are ok but f****** hell, you could see the road was blocked and you keep it running. Hopefully, it was a good wine.”

Ott Tänak, Hyundai World Rally Team

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

Hyundai team principal Cyril Abiteboul called for transparent review of the incident to understand how it can be avoided in the future.

At the end of the rally, the FIA, Rally Latvia organisers and Hyundai released a joint statement confirming that a review is underway and that Tanak has apologised for his comments directed at rally control.

“Following the incident involving Car 8 [Tanak] on Special Stage 14, a thorough review by the FIA is ongoing. The driver, Ott Tanak and team representative met with the FIA representatives on site to review the situation, which all agree was potentially dangerous,” read the statement.

“Discussing the situation, Tanak agreed that his comments following the stage were not in the best interest of the sport, but that they were made in the moments immediately following the incident. He apologised for his comments about Rally Control but welcomed the upcoming review.

“Hyundai Motorsport, the organiser and the FIA are collaborating to better understand the incident and to work together towards the continuous improvement of the safety systems in the sport, which is a critical goal of the FIA.”

Kalle Rovanpera maintained his control of Rally Latvia as the Toyota driver closed in on a dominant World Rally Championship victory on Sunday morning.  

The two-time world champion was unable to relax with Super Sunday points on offer and managed to balance the need for points and to preserve his overall rally lead perfectly.

Rovanpera headed into the final two stages with a 40.3s margin over Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier.

Rally1 rookie Martins Sesks held third [+54.0s] ahead of Hyundai’s Ott Tanak [+1m06.7s] and M-Sport’s full-time driver Adrien Fourmaux [+1m26.6s] .

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans continued to hold sixth [+1m40.7s] from Takamoto Katsuta [+2m02.9s] and championship leader Thierry Neuville [+2m44.0s]. The top 10 was completed by Esapekka Lappi [+3m31.8s] and M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster [+4m37.5s].         

Sunday morning began in overcast conditions but once again road order was crucial for posting stage-winning times.

Ogier kicked off the quartet of stages by topping the times in stage 17 [Krogzemji, 18.70km] by 1.4s from rally leader Rovanpera. The time meant Ogier took an early lead in the Super Sunday standings with the extra points on Rovanpera’s mind too despite his now 41.1s rally lead.

“We try to be fast and try to get some points for the team. Toyota has so far the two fastest cars, so all okay,” said Rovanpera.

“We are here to help the team so we need to bring some points on Sunday, personally it’s not so fun when you’re in a good lead and you want to fight for the win, but we can do both.”

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

The overall leaderboard remained largely unchanged as Sesks continued to hold third from a charging Tanak, desperate to salvage Sunday points. After his eventful Saturday, Tanak started the final day with a third-fastest stage time.

Sesks continued to impress to post the fourth-quickest time while title contenders Evans and Neuville clocked identical efforts ahead of M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux, who provisionally claimed the final Super Sunday point.

Tanak boosted his Super Sunday hopes by winning stage 18 [Mazilmaja, 13.34km] to sit second in the Sunday classification, 0.9s behind Ogier, who held the provisional seven bonus points.

Tanak took the stage win by 1.2s, with rally leader Rovanpera a further eight tenths back as he held third in the Sunday points.

The remaining Super Sunday positions were occupied by Evans, Sesks, Neuville and Fourmaux.

Oliver Solberg led the WRC2 class by 33.1s from Mikko Heikkila and Sami Pajari.

The crews will repeat the pair of stages which will conclude the rally this afternoon.      

Kalle Rovanpera dominated Saturday’s stages to open up a commanding Rally Latvia lead over Toyota World Rally Championship team-mate Sebastien Ogier.

The reigning world champion set a rapid pace to claim six of the eight stages and transform an overnight 15.7s advantage to a 42.5s lead [18 provisional points] heading into Sunday’s final four stages.

M-Sport’s local star Martins Sesks started Saturday in second but narrowly lost a fight with eight-time world champion Ogier to end the day a highly commendable third [+47.2s – 13 points].

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak survived a strange run-in with a promotional arch to finish fourth [+1m08.0s], bagging 10 provisional championship points. Tanak fared the best of the title contenders as Toyota’s Elfyn Evans reached service in sixth [+1m34.3s – six points], while championship leader Thierry Neuville picked up three points in eighth [+2m33.9s].

M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux completed the day in fifth with Takamoto Katsuta eighth, while Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi and M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster rounded out the top 10.

Saturday afternoon’s loop followed a similar narrative to the morning with Rovanpera setting a blistering pace at the front.

The Toyota driver set the benchmark time in Stage 13 [Podnieki 10.09km] to claim his ninth stage win of the rally. Rovanpera was 2.6s faster than nearest rival Ogier.

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Tomasz Kaliński

Ogier wasn’t happy with his morning loop and was eager to unlock more pace from his GR Yaris. While the Frenchman couldn’t beat his team-mate, he did pip Sesks by 0.2s to increase the gap to the M-Sport Rally1 rookie to 0.8s.

Sesks’ impressive pace offered the Latvian relative breathing space in the form of a 10.4s gap to fourth-placed Tanak.

Fourmaux headed into the stage with only an eight-second margin over Evans in the battle for fifth after losing time to the Welshman across the morning. A set-up change on his Puma at midday service provided more traction helping the Ford driver to a time 2.7s faster than Evans.

Fourmaux’s team-mate Munster was fortunate to survive a wild moment over a crest that ripped the front splitter and arch from his Puma.

Stage 14 provided one of the most bizarre moments of the WRC season when an inflatable arch was felled, which brought out the red flags.

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans ran wide at the right-hander before the arch, collecting a couple of advertising hoardings before returning to the road after clipping the arch.

“A bit of a silly mistake. I tried not to be too aggressive loading the car and got caught out,” said Evans.

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Tanak was the next car to arrive at the section, where he collected the felled arch, which draped his i20 N. Officials quickly red-flagged the stage while Tanak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja attempted to remove the arch from the car.

Tanak, sitting in fourth, was clearly angered by the strange incident and took aim at race control.

“I think this exactly describes how we are in safe hands in terms of race control. Probably they were having a nice meal and good wine when on the cameras you could see the road is blocked and there is a car coming. Well done race control, you are really taking care of us,» said Tanak on the television broadcast.

“We are ok but f****** hell, you could see the road was blocked and you keep it running. Hopefully, it was a good wine.”

Tanak was awarded a nominal second fastest time while Katsuta and Fourmaux, who were also delayed by the red flag, were handed a notional time.

Rally leader Rovanpera won the restarted test by 3.9s to extend his lead over Ogier to 41.3s.

Ogier issued a response to his team-mate on the penultimate stage of the day to take 0.3s from the Finn and win the short 6.64km gravel blast.

Tanak took 0.5s from Sesks to apply more pressure on the Latvian as the gap to third was reduced to 6.3s.

Rovanpera wrapped up the day with a stage win on the asphalt streets of host city Liepaja by 0.1s from Katsuta.

The technical test provided another wild moment for Tanak, who hit a hay bale after his i20 N’s driveshaft broke. Luckily, it didn’t prevent him from reaching the service park.

Oliver Solberg led the WRC2 class into the final day from Mikko Heikkila and Sami Pajari with four Sunday stages remaining.

Kalle Rovanpera recorded his 200th World Rally Championship stage win on his way to extending his lead at Rally Latvia on Saturday morning.

The two-time world champion won three of the four morning gravel tests to increase his advantage to 34.8s.

That lead was over Toyota team-mate Sebastien Ogier, who managed to pip local star Martins Sesks to second across the loop.

Hyundai’s Ott Tanak charged from sixth overnight to fourth [+45.0s] ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Adrien Fourmaux [+1m06.3s] and Toyota’s Elfyn Evans [+1m14.3s]. 

Takamoto Katsuta started the day in fourth but a mistake on stage 12 demoted the Japanese to seventh [+1m35.5ss] in front of Hyundai’s championship leader Thierry Neuville [+2m14.4s], Esapekka Lappi [+2m43.7s] and Gregoire Munster [+2m51.8s].

Road cleaning was arguably an even bigger effect on Saturday with only one of the day’s eight stages repeated.

This was evident in the morning’s first 18.87km test Pilskalns, as times tumbled with more or less every pass.

Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Tomasz Kalinski

Rally leader Rovanpera was granted the best road position which he duly made the most of, while adding further gloss. The Finn posted a blistering time despite carrying the extra weight of two spare wheels unlike his rally rivals Sesks and Ogier.  

Rovanpera chalked up his sixth stage win from nine tests by 5.4s from Ogier.

Ogier felt he could have used the lines from his rivals more but his effort did close the gap to second-placed Sesks to 3.2s. Sesks continued to impress matching the fourth-fastest time set by Katsuta.

«I was trying to be really clean but in some places, I was still a bit cautious,» said Sesks. «We will just drive we are not that experienced to fight with guys like [Ogier and Rovanpera].»

Tanak claimed his i20 N was much more «positive» which was reflected in the stage times as the Estonian climbed ahead of Fourmaux into fifth overall by 6.3s, after posting the third fastest stage time, just a tenth slower than Ogier.

The other change of position came further down the order as Neuville benefitted from team orders on Friday night that placed team-mate Lappi ahead of him on the road order.

Neuville took advantage of slightly cleaner road conditions to jump into eighth ahead of M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster. The gap to seventh-placed Evans was 38.8s.

«I was too careful, there was much more grip than I expected due to one car in front. I wasn’t using the line too much. One car can make that much difference,» said Neuville following his Friday night outburst on road order rules.

Stage 10 [Snepele 17.52km] will be remembered as a milestone test for Rovanpera as the Finn’s charge continued, which unbeknown to him was his 200th career WRC stage win. The triumph extended his rally lead out to 29.2s. 

Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Tomasz Kalinski

«That’s quite cool. If I would have known that [milestone was close] I would’ve been faster,» said Rovanpera on reaching 200 stage wins.

Behind, a cautious Sesks responded to Ogier in the fight for second by pipping the eight-time world champion Ogier by 0.3s.

The battle for fourth was close too as Katsuta hung on to the spot by 0.5s from a charging Tanak who was only two seconds slower than pacesetter Rovanpera.

Fourmaux was at a loss to explain why he was unable to replicate the pace he’d shown on Friday and came under pressure from Evans, who clawed time back to sit seven seconds adrift of Frenchman in sixth overall.

Rovanpera’s streak of five consecutive stage wins came to an end on stage 11 [Ivande 23.04km] as Tanak lit up the timing screens.

Tanak’s first fastest time of the event to date was enough to snatch fourth overall from Katsuta.

The leaderboard underwent another change with Ogier taking second from Sesks by 0.2s, despite surviving a wild moment. Ogier found himself completely crossed up in the test that resulted in his GR Yaris briefly going up on two wheels before the Frenchman somehow wrestled the car back on to the road. Ogier reached the stage end trailing leader Rovanpera by 33.4s.

Sébastien Ogier, Vincent Landais, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Tomasz Kalinski

The final stage of the loop [Vecpils  12.64km] wasn’t without drama either. Katsuta out-braked himself heading into a chicane which resulted in his GR Yaris finding a bank. Luckily, he was able to continue but had to fight a lack of power steering that dropped him from fourth to seventh overall.

There was no stopping Katsuta’s team-mate Rovanpera, who ended the loop in style by winning the fast and wide gravel test by 1.4s from Ogier.  

Oliver Solberg maintained his WRC2 lead over Mikko Heikkila with Sami Pajari in third.

A frustrated Thierry Neuville has ignited a debate on the World Rally Championship road position rules, saying “there is no reward” for doing a “great job” to lead the championship.

The Hyundai driver’s frustration came to the surface at the end of stage eight at Rally Latvia after a day sweeping the gravel roads at the top of the road order, as per the regulations for being the championship leader.

Neuville ended the day in ninth 1m23.3s behind rally leader and part-time driver Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera. The Belgian, who has opened the roads since taking the championship lead in Monte Carlo in January, had expected Friday to be the most challenging day of the season, given three of the seven tests were run only once and not repeated.

“I don’t know what to say. Obviously, the strategy to win the championship is not the same anymore,” said Neuville at the stage end. “Now things like doing a part-season are much more fun and a bigger benefit for everything, so it is something to think about.”

When asked by Motorsport.com if he stood by those comments directed at part-time drivers and the current road order rules, he added: “Yeah, definitely. I mean, why I should have the pain in the ass all weekend, all year long?

“I mean, we did a great job in the beginning of the year, and now there’s no reward at all. Basically, you see your championship going down. There’s nothing you can do and nothing you can fight against the others.

“We could have, whoever it is, Ott, Elfyn or myself, the winner of the championship at the end of the year winning maybe one rally.”

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Tomasz Kaliński

When asked what the solution should be for deciding the road order, he said: “It’s an endless discussion, so I don’t know what I should still add to it. It has been said many, many times. When  [Sebastien] Ogier was opening the road there was some tarmac rally in the middle of the gravel rallies, and now we have eight gravel rallies in a row, what can you do? 

“Even with a 40-point lead, there’s no way to keep those points, so we have to fight.”

The European Rally Championship, operated by the WRC Promoter, runs a qualifying stage which decides the leg one road order of the fastest 15 drivers.  A similar system was in place in the WRC from 2012-2013 before it was scrapped. 

“How many years have we mentioned it? Nobody wants it [the qualifying stage]. I guess that the FIA and promoter are super happy [with] a young driver, driving for a second time, starting 10 on the road and able to set the fastest times. So that’s what they like, but that’s not what the manufacturers want,” he added.

Neuville’s comments sparked plenty of debate among his rivals on Friday night with rally leader Rovanpera forthright regarding his view on the matter.

“It’s the same for years. It’s not now more difficult than it has been in previous years,” Rovanpera told Motorsport.com.

“Now he [Thierry] knows what it is when he’s opening the road. That’s why everybody is crying. I’m crying when I do it, Seb [Ogier] did it for years before. That’s just how it is, you need to take it. Otherwise, if you don’t want to do it, don’t lead the championship.”

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport

Eight-time world champion Ogier has the most experience of opening the roads of the current crop of drivers. He offered some sympathy, having battled previously to change the rules which he feels robs rallies of battles between the best drivers.

“Unfortunately, it’s like it is. I [was] suffering from this situation for many years,” Ogier told Motorsport.com.

“It’s funny that a couple of years ago he [Thierry] was often saying that I should stop crying about it, but now he’s crying more than anybody about it.

“It’s not fun and it’s not great. I think the shame is that we are missing opportunities too often in the WRC to have fights between the best because too often there are big differences between start positions, and then you just handicap the best too much. I have lost this fight for many years.”

Neuville’s nearest title rival Elfyn Evans, who ended Friday sitting seventh, added: “Of course, the qualifying thing has been discussed but it doesn’t seem to be favoured, so there’s not a lot more to discuss.

“If this is the way this is the way, it’s for sure frustrating and in some ways confusing with the championship contenders down the back end of the top 10, let’s say, but that’s how it is for now.”