Pajari powers to sensational maiden victory

Sami Pajari completed a gravel masterclass to claim a memorable maiden World Rally Championship victory at Rally Estonia.

The Toyota driver, co-driven by Marko Salminen, produced a career-best performance to take a breakthrough win from team-mate Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson by 19.5s.

Pajari showcased relentless and seemingly effortless speed to lead the rally, which featured a new 50-hour format, from start to finish, as he won 12 of the 18 stages, which included a stunning run of nine consecutive fastest times.

Solberg, who claimed his maiden WRC win in Estonia 12 months ago, was Pajari’s main threat, but the Monte Carlo winner couldn’t find the feeling behind the wheel to really take the fight to Pajari. Solberg claimed two stage wins on Saturday morning to cut the deficit to 14.1s before Pajari responded to pull clear of his Toyota team-mate in the afternoon.      

Pajari showed no signs of feeling the pressure of the unfamiliar position he found himself in and completed the victory in style.

“It’s something so amazing! Maybe I don’t realise what I have just done. Everybody working at Toyota Gazoo Racing, I’m super, super happy and grateful for you! Thanks for all the support, thanks for trusting in myself. We knew it was coming, there was no doubt, but now we have done it. So it’s good,” said an emotional Pajari.

The 24-year-old becomes the second driver to claim a maiden WRC win this season following on from team-mate Takamoto Katsuta. The victory has boosted Pajari’s championship hopes with the Finn now third, 33 points behind championship leader Elfyn Evans.

While Solberg was frustrated that he couldn’t find the feeling to push for victory, a third podium of the season – having crashed in four of the last five rounds – was gratefully received. Solberg left the rally with 27 points after bagging the maximum bonus points for winning Super Sunday and the Power Stage. 

The battle for the final podium place raged throughout the rally between Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville. The pair made the most of their road position to move into third and fourth on Friday. 

With road position a significant factor, the Hyundai duo managed to pull clear of the chasing pack, but didn’t have the pace to take the fight to leading Toyotas. Fourmaux led the charge but was fortunate to survive a wild moment over a jump in stage two, a collision with an anti-cut device and a slow puncture on Saturday. 

Neuville started the rally bemoaning a lack of feeling in his i20 N but as the rally progressed the 2024 world champion found speed, evidenced by a fastest time in stage 15 that reduced the gap to third-placed Fourmaux to 1.9s. 

However, on Sunday Fourmaux issued an impressive response to blow away his team-mate in the penultimate stage to claim third, as Neuville settled for fourth.

Reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier, making his first Estonia start since 2021, was hampered by road position and finished a distant fifth. The Frenchman, searching for a record-breaking 10th world title, did complete the objective of finishing ahead of title rivals Evans and Katsuta.   

Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Hyundai

Championship leader Evans once again was severely disadvantaged by having to open the road on Friday, with the Welshman down in ninth at the end of Friday. Faced with a better road position on Saturday, Evans climbed to sixth where he remained at the finish. Seven Super Sunday points also helped Evans extend his championship lead over Katsuta to 25 points. 

Evans benefitted from a tyre blow out and a puncture that forced Katsuta to retire from sixth on Friday, a puncture for M-Sport-Ford’s Martins Sesks, and an exhaust manifold issue that forced Josh McErlean to retire on Saturday.

Sesks endured an eventful rally that began with a 20s penalty for being two minutes late out of service as M-Sport battled to repair damage incurred from crash in shakedown. Sesks showed good pace to climb back to sixth before the puncture dropped the Latvian to seventh at the finish.

Esapekka Lappi took over the third Hyundai seat for the first time since Kenya in March, but it proved to be a difficult rally for the Finn. A struggle to extract speed from his i20 N and came home in eighth, ahead of M-Sport’s Jon Armstrong, who was delayed by a puncture suffered on the opening stage.

The top 10 was rounded out by home hero Robert Virves who took the WRC2 win by 7.6s after a titanic battle with Teemu Suninen and Roope Korhonen.

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– The Autosport.com Team