SS6: Ketomaa snatches the lead in Latvia

Jari Ketomaa has shot into the lead of Rally Liepāja-Ventspils after Craig Breen dropped back on stage six of the FIA European Rally Championship counter.

Despite reporting a “big moment through a snow bank” approximately three kilometres from the finish of the 21.31-kilometre Nest Oil run, Finn Ketomaa was 11.7s quicker than his rival to take a one-second advantage to midday service in Ventspils.

“I’m not overly surprised, it was going to happen at some stage because I’m driving very much within myself,” said Breen. “I’m not worried about because I can still find something, I should be fine.”

Ketomaa said: “I was unbelievable, I was completely flat out and we had one big moment through a snow bank after a crest.”

Alexey Lukyanuk continues to excel in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X with the Russian ERC Production Car Cup leader now 4.6s behind third-placed François Delecour.

“It was really incredible high speeds on this stage with fast flowing corners,” said Lukyanuk, who was fourth quickest through the stage. “It was a nice and exciting feeling and finally the time is good. I was a bit nervous because it was the first run and some corners were really slippery. There were lots of spectators in some sections.”

Jan Černý described the stage as one of the best he’d ever tackled despite experiencing a “big” moment during the run in his family-prepared ŠKODA Fabia Super 2000. The Czech impressed with the second fastest time, 8.0s down on Ketomaa. He climbs to sixth overall.

Siim Plangi reported a significant lack of grip due to damage to the studs in his front tyres. Vytautas Švedas admitted to making a few mistakes in the narrow opening section

Stéphane Lefebvre has maintained his lead of the ERC 2WD Championship in his Peugeot 208 R2.

Following a 30-minute service halt in Ventspils, stage seven, the first running of Ventbunkers 1, goes live at 15:20hrs local time.