Mãrtiņš Sesks has been inspired on Thursday in Saudi Arabia - two minutes ahead of his team-mates
Photography by M-Sport
Words by Luke Barry
He was perhaps the forgotten man prior to the start. Attention was on the World Rally Championship title battle instead, or even his team-mate Nasser Al-Attiyah’s Rally1 debut.
But Mãrtiņš Sesks has made his point at Rally Saudi Arabia.
In his words: “We are not only fast in Latvia, it seems.”
Fastest on stage two, fastest on stage three, fastest on stage five, joint-fastest on stage eight, leading from stage two to stage five, the M-Sport driver more than doubled his career stage win tally and led the field for the very first time.
A rear-right puncture on stage six was the only downside – the 20s lost left Sesks third place overnight, 6.9s behind new leader Adrien Fourmaux.
But having not driven the Puma Rally1 since Finland basically four months ago, Sesks is fighting at the front while his best placed team-mate is over two minutes behind in 10th.
“It’s a bit surprising, let’s say, the pace,” Sesks confessed to DirtFish. “I was just driving our base like we normally do, but it seemed that it’s going great and we feel comfortable.
“So, yeah, it’s nothing, nothing drastically we have done differently.”
Perhaps that’s the key.
Sesks of course is better placed to fight in Saudi Arabia, as he’s not faced with the same experience deficit he’s had during his six previous European events this year. Nobody has driven the Saudi stages before.
But speak to the team-mates he’s hammering, Grégoire Munster and Josh McErlean, and both point to Sesks’ driving style unlocking something neither of them has been able to.
Munster: “I’ve started a bit gently, trying to avoid problems, but I’m just a bit too far back and still doing that, I got a puncture in the afternoon, so it’s not paying off to be a bit more on the cautious side. But even when I’m trying, I never really manage to make the tire and the car to work.
“I watched Martins’ onboard and he’s managing to get some traction with a very different driving style, very sideways. But it seemed to work, so it takes a bit of time for me to adapt until we get there.”
That’s absolutely Munster’s intention – to adapt, having seen the difference that sideways style is making for Sesks.
“I mean it’s high risk but he’s very used to it, just throwing the car sideways very early on in the corner,” Munster added. “But actually we don’t really manage to make that tire work and get to grip so I guess with his input and slide and rotation at some point it still bites and then he is managing to do very good time, so that’s good for him and for the team.
“But I think Josh and me, we are a bit struggling and it takes time to achieve the same as him.”
McErlean concurred.
“It’s good to see Mãrtiņš on a pace now because at least we have a proper comparison to see that the car can work in certain scenarios,” he said. “Before we were always battling with each other in the same times, even in Estonia, he wasn’t far ahead and now he’s made a big jump. It’s good to see, at least we can learn something proper.”
Asked if driving the car more sideways is something he’d look at, McErlean instantly replied: “Yeah, it is.
“How you work the chassis and how you make it work with being aggressive, maybe more on the lateral side to get the track to move. He’s got a unique driving style as we all know, Mãrtiņš.
“If you watch his onboard against Ogier’s… OK at the end of the stage it’s a similar time, but it’s a very different way through the stage. So yeah, there’s different ways of looking at it, but I think it’s really working for him and his mindset this weekend is proper – he’s pushing.”
Sesks still isn’t fully sure where this massive upturn in performance has come from.
“Maybe these three months helped to refresh myself,” he pondered, “and coming here with no expectations, no testing, no nothing. Maybe at some point it’s easier to just come and see how it goes.”
But from here, does he dare try and win the rally?
“Of course today the cleaning was helpful for us. But yeah, let’s see how it is with the other guys and cars.”
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Gregoire Munster, Josh McErlean, M-Sport, Mārtinš Sesks, Rally Saudi Arabia, Rally Saudi Arabia 2025, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date November 27, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/11/NsB8HCt0-WRC_SAU_25_M_SESKS_1142-780x520.jpg November 27, 2025
Up Next
