Jari Ketomaa has won Rally Liepāja-Ventspils, round two of the FIA European Rally Championship.
Driving a Ford Fiesta RRC, Ketomaa and co-driver Kaj Lindström completed Sunday’s final stage with a winning margin of 31.0s over Craig Breen and David Moynihan in a Peugeot 207 Super 2000, who settled for second after they lost precious seconds with an minor electrical issue on Sunday morning.
French pair François Delecour and Dominique Savignoni completed the podium following a close battle with Alexey Lukyanuk and Alexey Arnautov, which ended when the Russians retired with a suspected mechanical issue on stage 14.
Their exit handed the ERC Production Car Cup honours to Lithuanians Vytautas Švedas and Žilvinas Sakalauskas in a Mitsubishi Lancer. They finished sixth overall.
Jan Černý and Pavel Kohout took fourth place in a privately-run ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000 by winning the final stage. “I really wanted to win this stage but I made a lot of mistakes,” said young Czech driver Černý.
Delecour also reported a minor scare on the 3.40-kilometre Ventspils kalns spectator stage, which brought the ERC action in Latvia to an exciting climax. “I don’t know about the jump and I jumped too much,” said Delecour. “I think I touched something because the car feels strange.”
Raimonds Kisiels was the top local runner home in fifth overall following a spectacular jump on the final stage in his MINI John Cooper Works RRC. He was second fastest, 2.7s down on Černý.
Risto Immonen was leading the ERC 2WD Championship heading to the final stage.
| Pos. | # | Nat. | Driver | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | FIN | Ketomaa Jari / Lindström Kaj | Ford Fiesta S2000 | 2h08m15.7s |
| 2 | 2 | IRL | Breen Craig / Moynihan David | Peugeot 207 S2000 | +31.0 |
| 3 | 3 | FRA | Delecour F. / Savignoni D. | Peugeot 207 S2000 | +2:47.5 |
| 4 | 4 | CZE | Cerný Jan / Kohout Pavel | Škoda Fabia S2000 | +3:03.4 |
| 5 | 10 | LVA | Kisiels R. / Ronis Arnis | Mini John Cooper Works S2000 | +5:46.3 |
| 6 | 9 | LTU | Švedas V. / Sakalauskas Ž. | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X | +5:55.7 |
| 7 | 16 | LVA | Egle Aivis / Dauga Andis | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X | +7:39.5 |
| 8 | 14 | EST | Jeets Raul / Toom Andrus | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X | +8:37.6 |
| 9 | 8 | CZE | Orsák Jaroslav / Šmeidler David | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX | +8:48.9 |
| 10 | 21 | UKR | Pushkar Vitaliy / Mishyn Ivan | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X R4 | +9:25.0 |
| 11 | 17 | HUN | Turán Frigyes / Zsiros Gábor | Subaru Impreza Sti R4 | +10:09.7 |
| 12 | 18 | LTU | Kvaraciejus R. / Cepulis M. | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X | +10:25.4 |
| 13 | 12 | LVA | Gryazin Vasily / Chumak Dmitry | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX R4 | +10:58.7 |
| 14 | 19 | HUN | Szabó Gergély / Borbely Karoly | Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X R4 | +11:06.5 |
| 15 | 31 | FIN | Immonen Risto / Lukka Mikko | Citroën C2 R2 Max | +11:32.7 |
| 16 | 29 | FRA | Lefebvre S. / Dubois Thomas | Peugeot 208 R2 | +12:36.6 |
| 17 | 5 | CZE | Tlusták A. / Vyoral Lukáš | Škoda Fabia S2000 | +13:54.2 |
| 18 | 20 | CZE | Štajf Vojtech / Riháková P. | Subaru Impreza STI | +13:56.8 |
| 19 | 25 | LVA | Sirmacis Ralfs / Kulšs Ma-ris | Ford Fiesta R2 | +14:53.4 |
| 20 | 15 | ROU | Tempestini M. / Pulpea Dorin | Subaru Impreza Sti R4 | +16:25.9 |