Pajari extends Rally Estonia lead, closes in on first WRC victory

Sami Pajari (above) completed the penultimate day of Rally Estonia on course for a first FIA World Rally Championship victory after his Toyota teammate, Oliver Solberg, all but conceded defeat in the battle for first place.

Solberg had brought Pajari’s unbroken sequence of stage wins to an end when he outpaced the Finn on Saturday’s third and fourth timed tests. The Swede won last year’s Rally Estonia in a one-off Rally1 drive for Toyota, helping earn him a full-season factory drive for 2027, and he’s looking for another strong result this time around to put his faltering WRC title attack back on track. The GR Yaris Rally driver reached the midday service break in Tartu 14.1s adrift of first place after the gap had risen to 17.6s following the morning’s opening two stages.

But Pajari responded in dominant fashion during the afternoon, netting three fastest stage times in his similar GR Yaris for an overnight lead of 25.0s.

Just two passes of the 15.16-mile Kaariku test on Sunday stand between the 24-year-old driver and a first WRC win. But Pajari is refusing to get ahead of himself, particularly after he hit a rock when he almost spun nearing the finish of the afternoon’s third test, the 14.75-mile Kambja 1. That incident, along with the deteriorating road surface on the final full-length stage of the day, 9.42-mile Otepaa 2, prompted a more cautious run from Pajari. It also resulted in a first non-Toyota fastest time when Thierry Neuville went quickest in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1.

“It’s not easy – it’s never meant to be easy – but still we are somehow quite comfortable with the lead,” said Pajari. “But anyway, it’s quite [a few miles] to do as well tomorrow, so it’s not too straightforward, but there was on the road section one fan with a really cool poster, which said, ‘Sami, don't listen to [co-driver] Marko [Salminen], send it.’ So, I’m trying to follow that.”

Pajari began Saturday’s leg, the longest of the rally at nine stages and 92.96 competitive miles, defending an overnight lead of 14.7s – the result of the former WRC2 champion winning all seven stages of Friday. He increased his stage-winning tally with the fastest time through the first two Saturday tests, and after Solberg’s back-to-back stage wins, Pajari went unbeaten on the subsequent three tests.

While Solberg enjoyed a far stronger Saturday in terms of car and driver performance, second place is likely to be as good as it will get, albeit a positive result for his title prospects after a recent spate of poor results.

“I was a bit optimistic with my tire choice this afternoon,” said Solberg. “It was a bit difficult with the tires, but the feeling with the car is good. Still, Sami has the very good feeling, too. I just need to feel a little bit more comfortable, but Sami is doing a great job and that’s it.”

Oliver Solberg has fallen to 25.0s behind Toyota teammate Sami Pajari, but second-place points would still be a boon for his faltering WRC title hopes. Red Bull Content Pool

Adrien Fourmaux finished day two in third place for Hyundai, despite a scare on the morning’s third stage when he struck an anti-cut device with the front-right corner of his i20 N Rally1. Although the impact tore off a chunk of bodywork, serious damage was avoided.

After a slow tire deflation on the following stage and a wild moment on Otepaa 1, Fourmaux has slipped into the clutches of his teammate, Thierry Neuville. The 2024 WRC champ outpaced him three times during the afternoon and is now just 1.9s behind with Sunday’s two stages remaining after they set identical times on the short, leg-ending Tartu Vald super special.

Reigning WRC champ Sebastien Ogier is fifth for Toyota after a “nothing special” day, one place and 30.1s ahead of teammate and current WRC points leader Elfyn Evans.

Ninth overnight, Evans made early progress by moving up to seventh on the 15.13-mile Peipsiaare 1 opening stage, relegating Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi and benefiting from Josh McErlean stopping eight miles in with a technical issue on his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1. The Welshman then climbed to sixth – by 5.8s – after Martins Sesks picked up front-right tire damage on his Puma Rally1 on the following stage.

With Sesks in tire preservation mode through the following two tests, Evans was able to pull clear of the Latvian WRC part-timer, who holds seventh overnight, 13.4s in arrears.

WRC part-timer Martins Sesks is best of the M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1s, the Latvian holding seventh overall after Saturday’s stages.

Lappi is now eighth, having escaped a wild slide on Kambja 1, and Jon Armstrong’s Puma is ninth.

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta restarted the second leg after tire damage led to his retirement prior to Friday’s final stage, but spent the day in road-sweeping mode as first car on the road.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, local hero Robert Virves leads the class and holds 10th overall in his Skoda Fabia RS.

The Estonian gave the home fans something to cheer about as he turned a scant overnight lead of 2.5s over GR Yaris Rally2-driving Teemu Suninen into a 10.1s margin over Roope Korhonen’s similar GR Yaris at the end of Saturday’s leg.

Suninen now sits third, just 0.8s behind Korhonen, and with Finns holding second to fifth in the overall WRC2 standings, Sunday looks like it could be a frantic “Battle of the Baltic” to determine the final winner.

Local hero Robert Virves’s Skoda Fabia RS continues to lead WRC2, but a quartet of Finns sit close behind. Red Bull Content Pool

WRC Rally Estonia, positions after Saturday/Leg Two, SS16
1 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 2h088m34.0s
2 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +25.0s
3 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +52.1s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +54.0s
5 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m32.8s
6 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m02.9s
7 Martins Sesks/Renars Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +2m16.3s
8 Esapekka Lappi/Enni Malkonen (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m42.0s
9 Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne (Ford Puma Rally1) +3m03.2s
10 Robert Virves/Jakko Viilo (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 leader) +7m07.2s 

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