Toyota youngster Sami Pajari is on the verge of his first World Rally Championship round victory

Pajari, the winner of the 2021 Junior World Rally Championship, has been leading the ninth round of this year’s World Rally Championship since the first special stage on Friday morning.

Sami Pajari wirbelt mächtig Staub auf und steht vor erstem WM-Lauf-Sieg

Foto: Red Bull

The 24-year-old Pajari won all the special stages on the opening day and carried that momentum into Saturday. There, he won the first run of the special stages in Peipsiääre and Mustvee, before Oliver Solberg fought back with two special stage wins on the second run.

In the afternoon, however, Pajari once again set the pace in the high-speed gravel rally and led on three of Saturday’s five special stages. He was able to gradually extend his lead over Solberg in second place.

Hyundai-Pilot Adrian Fourmaux liegt auf Platz drei

Foto: Red Bull

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Last year’s winner in Estonia, Solberg, felt that he had been too optimistic with his tyre choice in the afternoon. The Rallye Monte Carlo winner had relied exclusively on soft tyres. Pajari, on the other hand, had opted for two hard tyres in his set.

Pajari commented: “It was a good day. It’s never meant to be easy, but we still feel quite comfortable in the lead. There are still plenty of kilometres on the programme tomorrow, so it won’t be quite so straightforward.”

On a liaison stage, there was a really cool fan holding a placard that read: “Sami, don’t listen to Marko [Salminen, co-driver], just give it your all.” “So I’m trying to stick to that,” smiled the blond-haired driver.

Vorjahressieger Solberg einziger Herausforderer von Pajari

Foto: Red Bull

“The morning went much better than yesterday,” reflected Solberg. “I wish we’d had this good feeling yesterday, but we’re still lacking a bit in terms of commitment and willingness to take risks. Yet that’s exactly what I need to beat Sami. Sami drove extremely well. I’m just trying to give it my all with the confidence I have at the moment.”

French Hyundai driver Adrien Fourmaux managed to defend his third place from the previous day and is now 52.1 seconds behind. However, after 16 of 18 special stages, he is only 1.9 seconds ahead of his team-mate Thierry Neuville. The Belgian former world champion secured Hyundai’s only success of the weekend so far on SS15.

This allowed Neuville to extend his lead to over half a minute over world champion Sébastien Ogier (Toyota). Although nine-time world champion Ogier is enjoying his rally campaign, he is frustrated by the fact that the stage times have been getting faster and faster with each participating car as the stages are ‘cleared’.

Lokal-Hero Robert Virves (Skoda) führt die WRC2-Wertung an

Foto: Red Bull

Team-mate Elfyn Evans lies in sixth place ahead of M-Sport Ford driver Martins Sesks on his home turf. Hyundai part-time driver Esapekka Lappi, who went off the road spectacularly on the first special stage of the afternoon, is eighth in the standings, ahead of Jon Armstrong in the M-Sport Puma in ninth place.

Estonian Robert Virves (Škoda) is in 10th place overall and leads the WRC2 category with a 10.1-second lead over Roope Korhonen (Toyota). Teemu Suninen (Toyota) is in third place behind Korhonen. Toyota’s young hopeful Jaspar Vaher was forced to retire on the very first special stage of the day following a crash involving a violent impact of 8 G.