"Despite the many restrictions and rules, we had to follow, the rally was a success. We must thank all the responsible organizations and professionals whose instructions we have tried to follow as much as possible. We have to thank also E. Gulbja Laboratorija, which performed the necessary additional testing outside the usual working hours and helped to reduce the risk of infection. Many feedback and suggestions give us energy and strength to prepare for the next Rally Sarma. It should be noted that, in general, the spectators were very understanding and conscientious, but some rally celebrants and courageous spectators make us think that we will have to make additional efforts to educate the spectators in the future," admits Vilhelms Sniedzāns, the director of the Rally Sarma.

Initially, it was predicted that the battle for victory in the Rally Sarma 2022 would take place between several crews, but already in the first special stage Russian Igor Bulantsev rolled out, but in the middle of the second stage a serious mistake overwhelmed Estonian Georg Linnamäe's hopes of winning. Other Baltic and Russian crews also made various minor mistakes and lagged behind the leaders. Thus, the special stage wins were similarly divided between Asunmaa and Gorban, but the Finns turned out to be 11.54 seconds faster. This was the third time in history that the main prize of the Rally Sarma went to Finland - current world championship pilot Kalle Rovanperä won Rally Sarma in 2016 and 2017.

An interesting fight was also observed in the youth group LRC4, where two duels were formed after the retirement of Estonian Pranko Kõrgesaar. Estonians Karl-Markus Sei and Jaspar Vaher fought for the victory and Estonian driver Joosep Ralf Nõgene and Russian Alexander Zaitsev fought for the remaining place on the podium. Although Zaitsev was initially faster, Nõgene was able to overtake him. So only Estonian athletes took the podium in this class.

The LRC5 group also had an interesting fight - at the beginning of the rally, the duel for victory was formed by Jānis Vorobjovs and Timmu Kõrge, but the tricky Druviena roads disappointed both of them - Vorobjovs not only got punctured and lost a minute but also received a five-minute penalty for three-wheel driving. Kõrge, on the other hand, was unable to finish the third special stage with a broken wheel. Thus, the fight for victory was taken over by Edijs Bergmanis and Estonian Aiko Aigro. The fight continued until the finish, and Bergman turned out to be 6.31 seconds faster.

Lithuanian Martinas Samsonas won a convincing victory in the LRC6 group, beating the closest followers by two and a half minutes. In the LRC7 group, technical failures one by one eliminated the leaders - first Uldis Lepiksons, then Ivo Ķilpis and finally Ralfs Sirmacis. Thus, the victory was won by Karel Tölp from Estonia, who fought the whole rally with Madars Dīriņš and was only 6.23 seconds ahead.

The podium of the RK11 group was divided by Kristaps Dzīvītis. Matīss Mežaks and Jānis Sala, while in RK12 group by Reinis Trūps and Ēriks Kursišs, but in RK13 by Viesturs Tilgass and Jānis Vanags. The first three in the rallysprint were stable as a rock - Mareks Švarcs-Švampāns won convincingly, leaving Kristaps Sarma and Vigo Rubenis behind.

All results of the Rally Sarma and rallysprint are available on the website of the Latvian Rally Championship www.autorally.lv

Ģirts Avotiņš, Rallija Sarma media officer. Photo: Mārtiņš Vanags, MVfoto