Rally Estonia: Pajari (Toyota) wins all special stages at the start

The Finn dominated the opening day of the ninth round of the World Rally Championship, winning all seven special stages. He now leads the standings with a comfortable lead over Solberg.

Die Rallye-WM-Familie vor dem Auftakt der Rallye Estland

Foto: Red Bull

With five podium finishes from eight starts in the 2026 World Rally Championship so far, the only thing missing for Pajari is his long-awaited first victory.

Having set the fastest time during Friday morning’s shakedown alongside his Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans, Pajari carried that momentum through the entire opening day.

Pajari was the fastest on all six gravel forest stages and even managed to win the ‘Elva linn’ asphalt super special stage, which rounded off the day.

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19.07.2026 - 12:00

Vorjahressieger Oliver Solberg liegt auf Platz zwei

Foto: Red Bull

“We’ve really enjoyed it,” commented Pajari. “However, it’s only the first day of this event. So it’s still too early to say how things will go over the next two days. But it’s gone absolutely brilliantly so far. I hope we can maintain this good momentum over the next two days.”

Last year’s Rally Estonia winner, Oliver Solberg, finished Friday as Pajari’s closest challenger. However, the Swede was unable to quite keep up with the pace of his Toyota team-mate.

Weltmeister Ogier auf Platz fünf in Lauerstellung

Foto: Red Bull

Instead, the Swede first had to fend off Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai), who is just 1.8 seconds behind after seven special stages.

“It was a difficult day and also a bit disappointing. We need to try and get a better feel for tomorrow and improve,” said Rallye Monte Carlo winner Solberg.

Fourmaux added: “It’s a good battle; we’ll see tomorrow. Third place this evening is a positive result, so we can be satisfied.”

Adrien Fourmaux im Hyundai nach dem Auftakttag auf Positon drei

Foto: Red Bull

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) finished the day in fourth place, 7.5 seconds behind his French team-mate.

“I’d expected more at the start,” Neuville lamented. “To be honest, the car felt brilliant during the test runs. But today I couldn’t replicate that at all. I’ve got massive understeer. We’ll change a few things tomorrow and see what happens.”

Behind Neuville, world champion Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) lies in fifth place, 9.3 seconds behind, lying in wait.

Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) was in sixth place, but problems with his left front wheel on SS6 cost him over a minute and dropped him five places to 11th.

He subsequently retired on the liaison stage before SS 7, which earned him a 10-minute time penalty. This means he will have to start early on Saturday’s nine special stages, acting as the road sweeper.

Martins Sesks, meanwhile, is in sixth place at his home rally for the M-Sport Ford team. The super-talented driver managed to make up four places with the third-fastest time on the penultimate special stage.

A collision with a barrier during the shakedown had caused damage to his Puma. Sesks had to start the rally with a 20-second penalty because he had left the service area two minutes late. Without this penalty, he would have been just 24.7 seconds behind the leader and would even have been ahead of Ogier.

Sesks summed up: “Today went well. We really put our foot down, but the credit for this day goes to the team. If we can maintain our pace tomorrow, that would simply be brilliant.”

Places six to nine are separated by just 5.7 seconds. Hyundai part-time driver Esapekka Lappi was not entirely satisfied with his pace and is listed in seventh place. M-Sport driver Josh McErlean is listed in eighth position.

Jon Armstrong in WP1 in Schwierigkeiten

Foto: Red Bull

Elfyn Evans, who leads the World Championship standings, finished the day in ninth place, 49.8 seconds behind the leader. The Welshman had spent most of the first day of competition clearing the gravel track for his rivals.

Katsuta’s drama in the closing stages spares Jon Armstrong (M-Sport Ford) the arduous task of clearing the special stages on Saturday.

The Irishman lamented: “What might have been if an unfortunate landing after a jump on SS1 hadn’t caused a puncture to the left front tyre and dented the left front mudguard.” Armstrong ended Friday 14.5 seconds behind Evans.

Skoda driver Robert Virves is leading a fierce battle in the WRC2 category at his home rally and is just 2.5 seconds ahead of his title rival Teemu Suninen in the Toyota.

Toyota drivers Roope Korhonen and Jaspar Vaher are in third and fourth place after the first day, whilst Emil Lindholm (Škoda) holds fifth place.