Sami Pajari remains the driver to beat at Rally Estonia although Oliver Solberg put an end to his Toyota team-mate’s 100% stage-winning streak on Saturday morning.
After delivering a stunning drive to win all of Friday’s seven stages, Pajari continued his dominance of the fast gravel rally when the action resumed on Saturday. The Toyota driver, searching for a maiden WRC win, topped the opening two stages of the morning loop to extend his stage-winning streak to nine as his lead over Solberg grew to 17.6s.
However, the prospect of another clean sweep of fastest times came to an end on stage 10 [Peipsiaare 2] when Solberg struck, taking 3.3s out of his rival. Solberg was clearly much happier with the feeling behind the wheel of his GR Yaris after making some set up tweaks, and went on to take stage 11 [Mustvee 2] with a margin of 0.2s over Pajari.
It meant Pajari headed to service with his lead over Solberg reduced to 14.1s.
“It seems like Oliver was super-fast and pushing like crazy [on SS10]. I would not like to give Oliver an easy job to catch up, so we need to keep pushing,” said Pajari.
Before adding: “0.2s on this stage [stage 11] is nothing really, but it seems he is building up the pace somehow. I need to focus on my thing, and the feeling is still there, so we need to keep pushing.”
Solberg begins to close on Pajari
After feeling a little out of sorts on Friday, Solberg believes the feeling in his GR Yaris is “more or less” the same as what he had at this event last year when he romped to a maiden WRC win.
“That was the objective yesterday to change the car around to finally find out why the feeling wasn’t there like last year, and we found some answers. It should be more or less the same as last year, and the feeling is a bit better,” said Solberg.
Oliver Solberg is “not looking too much at the gap” up front in Estonia
Photo by: Toyota Racing
“I’m not looking too much at the gap. I think more focusing right now about finding the feeling again, finding confidence, and then the times are coming. So, I think that is the most important.”
The morning loop wasn’t without a scare for Solberg, who felt a vibration in his front-right tyre.
“I was so scared that it [the tyre] was going to blow up after what happened to Taka [Katsuta] yesterday,” said Solberg.
“I backed off a little bit because it scared me a little bit. In the end, it was fine and I probably could have pushed more, but you never know. If it blows up during the stage, you’re finished.”
Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux continued to hold third despite surviving a scare on stage 10 when he struck an anti-cut device with the front-right corner of his i20 N Rally1.
The Frenchman had completed the top three stage times on stages eight and nine, but this moment allowed team-mate Thierry Neuville to close to within 8.7s. Fourmaux was then forced to nurse a deflating tyre through the closing five kilometres of stage 11 as fourth-placed Neuville further cut the gap to 5.6s.
Behind Neuville, reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier lost ground in his battle with Neuville, ending the loop 19.8s behind and 1m04.4s from the lead.
“It didn’t go the way we were hoping for. But I didn’t manage to increase my speed,” said Ogier. “I think I still have too much hesitation, especially on the first passes on the high-speed sections in the forest. It’s difficult to be committed enough, and at the moment that’s the speed we have.”
Championship leader Evans responds
Ogier headed to service with a 16.7s margin over championship leader Elfyn Evans, who proved to be the biggest mover across the loop. Evans started the day in ninth but managed to climb ahead of Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi and M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean to seventh after stage eight. Evans’ climb was aided by an exhaust manifold issue that forced McErlean to retire his Ford Puma.
Josh McErlean retired his M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1
Photo by: M-Sport
McErlean’s team-mate Martins Sesks also hit trouble when he suffered a front-right puncture in stage nine that elevated Evans to sixth. Sesks had to preserve his remaining tyres to complete the loop.
Jon Armstrong completed the Rally1 field in ninth despite suffering a nosebleed at the end of the final stage of the loop.
“It always looks worse than what it is. It’s quite easy if you’re not careful whenever you’re wiping your sweat off your face, then you can basically just get a nosebleed because you just hurt a vessel,” said Armstrong.
“It maybe happens once a year in rallies for me. But it’s a bit weird when you get it. If you’re getting a little bit of blood from the nose then you must be trying pretty hard.”
Crews will face five more stages to conclude Saturday’s action.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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