The Estonian placed top in Sunday's regular stage standings alone, and also won the power stage, as well as winning the initial shakedown stage on Thursday morning. These two strong performances bookmarked less successful stages Friday and Saturday.

Reigning world champion Kalle Rovanperä of Finland won the race for Toyota, and his teammate, veteran and eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier was second. Tänak was third, Adrien Fourmaux was the first M-Sport Ford finisher in fourth place, followed by a pair of Toyota drivers, Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta.

Local driver Martinš Sesks (M-Sport) came seventh and won the longest stage of the rally, the 27.5-kilometer Tukums stage before a home crowd, earning his first career stage win in the WRC series.

 Rovanperä, who cut his rallying teeth in Latvia as a teenager, led the race from stage one and won 10 more of the 20 stages despite carrying two spare tires on several passes, unlike his competitors.

"This is kind of my third home rally, and it's cool to win here, when the rally is included in the WRC for the first time. We were stronger than we thought, so the team has done a very good job," Rovanperä said post-race.

How the points are spread in Latvia #WRC | #TetRallyLatvia pic.twitter.com/52xyzAwBAX

— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) July 21, 2024

Among other Estonian competitors, Gregor Jeets (Toyota) placed seventh in the WRC2 category, two minutes behind category winner Oliver Solberg.

Thursday

The 20-stage rage proper started Thursday evening and the 11-kilometer opening stage near Riga favored those who went out with soft compound tires. Tänak opted for hard compound tires and admitted after the stage finish that this had been the wrong, while he also lost a few seconds hitting a hay bale.

Friday

Tänak struggled to find confidence on Friday morning and expressed dissatisfaction with the car, finishing day two in sixth place, 38 seconds behind the race leader.

Saturday

The dynamics remained largely unchanged on Saturday morning. Rovanperä seemed in a league of his own on the Latvian roads, unlike the others taking two spare tires, yet still winning three out of four stages, one of which was his 200th WRC career stage win.

A curious incident occurred during the 14th Vecpils 2 stage when Welshman Elfyn Evans first hit an advertising banner, and narrowly avoided an inflatable arch, dragging the guyropes that had held it in place behind him.

No warning was issued to the next driver out, who happened to be Tänak, who at high speed collided with the remains of the inflatable arch, which had just collapsed.

Debris caught in the wheel well and other parts of the car forced him to pull over and halted the stage, while Tänak dealt with the matter. On finally reaching the finish, he was somewhat pithy in his remarks, saying the incident: "Shows how well the rally control center is doing its job. They were probably enjoying some good food and wine, even though the camera clearly shows the track was blocked. Well done, good boys; it's clear you're taking care of us. Hopefully, the wine at least tasted good."

The WRC itself said race control was unaware of the situation due to technical issues with the live broadcast on Saturday.

Tänak was assigned a notional time, losing only 2.7 seconds to Rovanperä.

However, the surprises were not over for Tänak. On the short Liepaja  city stage that concluded day three – a type of stage drivers generally dislike as while it is nearly impossible to gain time, it is very easy to lose it – the Estonian encountered a technical issue.

After landing from a jump, he lost his brakes, slid into a hay bale, spun, then the Hyundai's engine stalled.

Consequently, on a stage where the top eight were separated by just 1.7 seconds, Tänak lost 16 seconds to Rovanperä. "What an afternoon," the Estonian remarked afterwards.

Sunday

After overcoming Saturday's issues, Tänak demonstrated his power on Sunday with a better starting position, winning the last three stages and finishing first for the day, just 0.2 seconds ahead of Ogier.

The two drivers started the power stage with identical overall times, and Tänak was punted up to third place by the end.

Of young Latvian driver Martinš Sesks, Tänak said he: "Has done an incredible job. Yes, this is his home rally and he knows these roads very well, but no one can question his driving skills. A podium finish would have been great for him, but this will be extra motivation for the future. He pushed us very hard, and Latvians should be very proud of him."

Tänak remains second in the driver's table with 137 points, 18 points behind Belgian Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and five ahead of Evans. Tänak and co-driver Martin Järveoja won their first and so far only WRC title with Toyota in 2019.

The next WRC race, round nine (of 13) takes place in Finland at the start of August.

Rally Latvia replaced Rally Estonia on the WRC calendar for 2024. The Estonian race returns next year.

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