Toyota driver Pajari wins his first World Rally Championship round at Rally Estonia

The young Toyota driver, alongside his co-driver Marko Salminen, beat his team-mate and last year’s winner Oliver Solberg by 19.5 seconds in the high-speed gravel rally. Frenchman Adrien Fourmaux held off his Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville in the two final special stages to complete the podium in third place.

The 24-year-old Pajari is thus the sixth winner of the 2026 season. This means that all five Toyota drivers have now won a World Rally Championship round. The blond-haired driver extended his own podium record to six, more than any other driver so far this season.

Elfyn Evans (Toyota) remains the leader in the provisional World Championship standings. The Welshman extended his lead in the championship to 25 points, despite finishing only sixth in Estonia. He benefited from the fact that his team-mate Takamoto Katsuta finished outside the points. The Japanese driver had been eliminated from the classification on Friday due to two damaged tyres.

Pajari now lies third in the World Championship, 33 points behind Evans and eight points behind Katsuta. Reigning world champion Sébastien Ogier (fifth in Estonia) trails by a further five points. Monte Carlo Rally winner Solberg is 47 points behind leader Evans, having bagged all ten ‘Super Sunday’ points.

As he crossed the finish line, Pajari let his emotions run free, leaping out of the car, pointing at the Toyota emblem on the front of his Yaris Rally1 car and hugging family and friends.

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“This is just incredible. Perhaps I haven’t quite realised yet what I’ve just achieved,” said the blond-haired driver.

“A huge thank you to everyone at Toyota Gazoo Racing – I’m absolutely delighted for you all and am infinitely grateful. Thank you for trusting me and always supporting me. Thank you to my whole family, my friends and everyone who stood by me even in difficult times – this one’s for you.”

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“Last but not least, I’d like to thank myself for not giving up and for giving it another go. We knew this day would come; there was no doubt about it, but now we’ve done it.”

Solberg never really found an answer to Pajari’s blistering pace in Estonia. The Swede had struggled to regain his usual form following a run of recent disappointing results. Second place was his first podium finish since the Rally of Portugal in May.

Fourmaux’s third place was his second podium finish of the season and denied Neuville a podium place in Estonia for the first time since 2022. Ogier rounded off the top five, 33.2 seconds behind Neuville.

Latvian driver Martinss Sesks led the M-Sport Ford team into seventh place, recording three top-three stage times over the course of the weekend.

Sesks had been on the back foot from the start of the rally, having clipped a protective barrier during Friday morning’s shakedown. This damaged the steering and underbody of his Ford Puma Rally1.

Although his car was repaired in time for the start of the rally, Sesks left the service park two minutes late and incurred a 20-second time penalty. However, this had no impact on his overall position.

Hyundai part-time driver Esapekka Lappi finished eighth, 27 seconds behind Sesks. The Finn had finished on the podium during his last appearance at Rally Estonia (2023), but was now somewhat disappointed with his own lack of pace.

“I was quite happy with the car for most of the rally, but my times don’t reflect how it felt to drive,” reflected Lappi. “The pace feels really good. So I don’t know what I need to do the week after next to do better in Finland.”

Jon Armstrong finished ninth after losing half a minute on the first special stage when a tyre burst following an unfortunate landing after a jump. As a result, the M-Sport driver had to act as the road sweeper on the gravel stages on both Saturday and Sunday.

Team-mate Josh McErlean finished outside the points after being forced to retire early from Saturday’s loop due to a problem with his exhaust manifold.

The top 10 was rounded off by the leading Rally2 car, driven by local hero Robert Virves. The Skoda driver repeated his WRC2 victory from last year’s Rally Estonia. This triumph was already his third in as many championship starts this year. Thanks to a grant from the WRC promoter as the highest-placed Estonian, this earned him an additional 25,000 euros.

At the finish, Teemu Suninen (Toyota) took second place in the WRC2 standings, 7.6 seconds behind. His team-mate Roope Korhonen finished just 1.2 seconds behind in third place.