WRC
Finn Pajari continues to fly high in Estonia WRC speedfest
Sami Pajari is showing no sign of slowing down in the FIA World Rally Championship after he reached Delfi Rally Estonia’s Saturday midday service halt with an advantage of 14.1sec.
Defending an overnight lead of 14.7sec, Pajari picked up where he left off on Friday by extending his unbroken stage-winning run to eight after he beat Solberg’s fastest time on Saturday’s opening Peipsiääre test by 1.6sec to increase his overall advantage to 16.3sec.
And it would get better for the Toyota Gazoo Racing driver when he posted the quickest effort on SS9, this time with a 1.3sec margin over Solberg, for a lead of 17.6sec.
But Solberg hit back to break his sequence of stage wins on SS10 – and trim Pajari’s margin to 14.3sec. The 2025 Delfi Rally Estonia winner then went quicker again on SS11, stopping the clocks 0.2s faster than fellow Toyota driver Pajari in an identical Hankook-equipped Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, despite reporting a front-right tyre vibration.
Oliver Solberg halted Sami Pajari's string of stage wins
© At World
“We made a small change to the car as I lost some time in the first stage in the last section,” Finn Pajari explained after SS9. “It was now clearly better. The feeling wasn’t perfect, but the time was good. 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. I still need to focus on my thing, the feeling is still there, no dramas.”
For Solberg Saturday morning proved more satisfactory in terms of car handling compared to Friday.
“The car is bit more predictable today,” Solberg said. “It feels a bit more in the right direction and I felt quite comfortable [on SS10]. A few sections I was way too careful. It’s hard for the tyres and also very difficult in the ruts. But it’s okay.”
Adrien Fourmaux held on to second place throughout Saturday morning
© At World
Adrien Fourmaux continues to occupy third place for the Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team despite a scare on SS10 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 SS8 and SS9, but his moment on SS10, which tore off a section of his car’s bodywork, meant he could do no better than fifth quickest, which allowed team-mate Thierry Neuville to close to within 8.7sec. And after Fourmaux was forced to nurse a deflating tyre through the closing five kilometres of SS11, Neuville cut his advantage to 5.6sec.
Behind Neuville, reigning world champion Sébastien Ogier is an increasingly distant fifth on his first Delfi Rally Estonia since 2021, the Toyota driver finishing the morning loop 1min 04.4sec adrift off top spot.
“It’s hard to be on the limit,” Ogier said after SS9. “I did a mistake in a junction where I went wide and lost some time. It was very rutted in [SS10]. I was bit more on the safe side to avoid a puncture.”
Ninth overnight, Elfyn Evans made early progress by moving up to seventh on SS8, overtaking Esapekka Lappi and benefiting from Josh McErlean stopping after 13.4 kilometres with a technical issue on his Ford Puma Rally1. The world championship leader then climbed to sixth – by 5.8sec – after Mārtiņš Sesks picked up front-right tyre damage on SS9.
With Sesks in tyre preservation mode through SS10 and SS11, Evans was able to pull clear of his Latvian rival, who holds seventh.
Esapekka Lappi is eighth, Jon Armstrong ninth and Estonia’s WRC2 leader Robert Virves completing the top 10 in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
For McErlean, meanwhile, a fine Friday turned into a sorry Saturday after he was stationary for 10 minutes on SS8. The M-Sport driver would retire with a reported exhaust manifold issue prior to SS10.
“The car just cut out and it was misfiring,” said McErlean, who was eighth overall after Friday’s seven stages. “It just stopped at a junction and we had to reset everything and try some different sensors in the road section.”
Delfi Rally Estonia’s longest leg, which covers a timed distance of 149.60km, resumes with the first of two runs through the 23.74km Kambja stage from 15:48 local time as the event heads south of host city Tartu.
