The first event of the 2025 Baltic rally season took place in the north of Latvia, in Alūksne. But the closer we got to Alūksne, the fewer winter features we could see. It was also raining quite heavily, so the conditions were not the best for the participants, the spectators and the roads on which the rally took place. Nevertheless, all three N5 crews arrived in Alūksne – two from Lithuania and one from Finland. On Friday, the competitors prepared to tackle the 13-kilometre special stage twice, and on Saturday three more stages awaited, which were also driven also twice.
The winter was very late on Friday evening and the action actually took place on frozen, rain-soaked gravel. However, it started to snow later, making conditions even more difficult for the crews driving with powerful additional headlights. The Finnish and Lithuanian N5 cars fought an entertaining duel. Paulius Beniušis, who was in fourteenth place after the first day, was fighting with Finn Sakari Vierimaa, who is approaching his seventieth birthday, in a Peugeot 208 N5. The two were separated by just 6 seconds. Meanwhile, Rokas Markovičius finished the day in 26th place in a Hyundai i20 N5.
The second day of the rally welcomed the participants in a slightly more wintry mood. It was snowing and the temperatures were around freezing point, offering much better race conditions. The battle between Sakari and Paulius, which had begun on the first day, continued on Saturday. After the only service of Saturday, only a few seconds separated the N5 duo and they were in 14th to 15th place overall, but 2nd to 3rd in the 4WD / Proto class. However, this battle ended when the Lithuanian crew withdrew from the competition, so all the Finn had to do was finish the race calmly, which he managed to do with 16th place overall and second place in the 4WD/Proto class. It was not the easiest race for Rokas Markovičis and Martynas Masaitis, but they successfully reached the rally finish line and continued gaining valuable experience. Their Hyundai i20 N5 finished 26th overall and third in the 4WD / Proto class.
In the near future we will see N5 cars in Lithuania at the “Biorina Winter Rally Rokiškis” rally after two weeks 🙂
| Driver | Co-driver | Car | Team | Class | Time | Overall | Class | |||
 | Sakari Vierimaa | | Mika Rajasalo |  | Peugeot 208 N5 | Sakari Vierimaa | 4WD / Proto | 49:06.98 | 16 | 2 |
 | Rokas Markovičius | | Martynas Masaitis |  | Hyundai i20 N5 | Gorilla Burgers | 4WD / Proto | 51:56.64 | 26 | 3 |
| Paulius Beniušis | | Kristupas Adinavičius |  | Citroen C3 N5 | ABEPA ST-SPORT | 4WD / Proto | DNF | – | – |
