Mãrtiņš Sesks will return to the Rally1 field at next month's season finale
Photography by M-Sport
Words by Luke Barry
Mãrtiņš Sesks will make his World Rally Championship return at next month’s Rally Saudi Arabia, joining a four-strong M-Sport Ford lineup in a bid to firmly prove himself.
Off the back of two standout performances in Poland and at home in Latvia in 2024, Sesks has already completed six rounds of the 2025 season – with a best result of sixth in Sweden.
August’s Rally Finland marked his final confirmed event as team-mate to Grégoire Munster and Josh McErlean, but he always harbored ambition to compete in the Saudi Arabian season finale.
Sesks and co-driver Renãrs Francis will join Munster, McErlean and 20-time Middle East Rally champion Nasser Al-Attiyah in M-Sport’s line up on November 26-29.
The desire to compete ‘without any excuses’ has inspired Sesks to secure the budget to compete one more time in a Rally1 car this year.
Sesks told DirtFish: “I think, first of all, this will be one of the most interesting events. The rally is new for everyone which I have been waiting for, because this year this was a very big challenge to prepare for the rallies, where others have loads of experience and we don’t.
“With Saudi, nobody really knows [what to expect] and you don’t have any notes from previous years and you don’t have anything. So that is quite nice.
“Then we will see how far or how close we are from the others and what is happening when everybody is on the same playing field.”
Sesks is looking for an opportunity to compete on an even keel
Sesks’ 2025 hasn’t lived up to the same highs of last year, where he starred in rallies he had an experience advantage over the seasoned Rally1 drivers.
He hasn’t set a specific target for Saudi Arabia other than to accurately measure himself up against the rest when he’s not at an advantage or disadvantage.
“I think it’s a good rally to see how close or how far we are,” the 26-year-old explained. “And then there is no excuses: ‘Oh, I haven’t done this stage, I haven’t done this rally’, because nobody has done it.
“And I think then it will be just a fair comparison where there is no theoretical excuses about something. I think that’s what we are looking for.”
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Mārtinš Sesks, Rally Saudi Arabia, Rally Saudi Arabia 2025, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date October 20, 2025 DirtFish
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