Martins Sesks remains tight-lipped on his World Rally Championship future after claiming a confidence-boosting victory in the European Rally Championship season finale.
The M-Sport-Ford WRC driver produced an impressive display on Portugal’s famous gravel stages on his way to victory at Rally 6 Cities North of Portugal, after receiving a call to join the Team MRF Tyres squad.
Sesks built up a 10.5s lead over MRF team-mate and this year's WRC2 title contender Roope Korhonen heading into Sunday’s final eight stages. However, Korhonen recorded a hat-trick of stage wins to reel in the Latvian.
Heading into the final stage of the morning loop, Sesks suffered a broken top mount on his suspension which handed Korhonen an 8.2s lead. The rally then swung back in Sesks’ favour when Korhonen’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 was reduced to two-wheel drive. As a result, Sesks was able to claim a commanding fifth career ERC triumph by 1m02.9s from WRC2 regular Pablo Sarrazin, with Korhonen limping home in third.
After a difficult six-round WRC campaign with M-Sport that yielded a best finish of seventh in Estonia, the victory offered a timely reminder to the WRC service park.
“We worked a lot towards this,” said Sesks, who helped MRF Tyres secure the ERC Teams’ title. “Of course, it wasn’t easy for us and Roope today, we both had some technical issues. At the end we were a bit more lucky but the pace we were driving today and yesterday, they made us push really hard.
“It is good [for the confidence] and now it is time to take some time off.”
Photo by: ERC
When pressed on what he would like to do next year he added: “Let’s see.”
While Sesks was unable to provide much clarity on his future in Portugal, speaking after the WRC round in Sardinia earlier this month, the 27-year-old was reasonably confident of a drive in "something” next year.
“I will probably drive something with someone, somewhere,” said Sesks.
“It is just a matter of seeing what is possible and what kind of offers we can have and what kind of discussions we can have.
“There are a few chances to do something but it depends on how much we can do and what we can do. In the past two years it has been really nice to drive in the highest category, but if you are not doing it fully then for me to come to a rally and then struggle is [challenging].”
Sesks’ second partial WRC Rally1 campaign with M-Sport was plagued by issues and misfortune. Punctures in Sweden, Portugal, Greece and Sardinia put the brakes on securing a strong haul of points in those gravel rallies.
Finland was where Sesks was able to show potential, running as high as fifth before a costly crash towards the end SS14 ended any hopes of a top finish. As a result, Sesks and co-driver Renārs Francis ended the year picking up three points-paying finishes on their way to 16th in the championship standings.
One objective that Sesks has high on his priority list for 2027 is securing a deal where more regular seat time is on offer.
“Minimum events in a programme I don’t know, maybe we do half a year but we do everything in a row. You saw the speed in Finland when we were fighting with the cars at the top, so that was where we were starting to get good speed and then I had two months off before the next rally,” Sesks added.
“I think it is also a question that after these two and half years, if part-time offers are all we can get, then I probably need to do something else.”