WRC
Pajari in pole position for Delfi Rally Estonia glory
Sami Pajari completed the penultimate day of Delfi Rally Estonia on course for a maiden FIA World Rally Championship victory after Oliver Solberg all but conceded defeat in the battle for first place.
Solberg had brought Pajari’s unbroken sequence of stage wins to an end when he outpaced his fellow Toyota driver on stages 10 and 11 to reach the midday service break in Tartu 14.1sec adrift of first place after the gap had risen to 17.6sec following SS9.
But Pajari, with Marko Salminen co-driving, responded in dominant fashion during the afternoon, netting three stage bests for an overnight lead of 25.0sec.
Two passes of the 24.39km Kääriku test on Sunday now stand between Pajari and a maiden WRC win, 12 months on from Solberg banking his breakthrough success in the sport’s top tier at the same event.
Oliver Solberg takes a big drop on Saturday in Estonia
© At World
However, Pajari is refusing to get carried away, particularly after he hit a rock when he almost spun nearing the finish of SS14. The incident, allied to the deteriorating road surface on SS15, prompted a more cautious run from Pajari through the final full-length stage of the day. It also resulted in a first non-Toyota fastest time after Hyundai-driving Thierry Neuville went quickest.
“It’s not easy, it’s never meant to be easy, but still we are somehow quite comfortable with the lead,” said Pajari. “But it’s anyway quite many kilometres to do as well tomorrow, so it’s not too straightforward, but there was on the road section one fan with a really cool poster, which said, ‘Sami, don't listen to Marko, send it’. So, I’m trying to follow that.”
Pajari began Saturday’s leg, the longest of the rally at 149.60km, defending an overnight lead of 14.7sec, the result of the former WRC2 champion winning all seven stages on Friday. He increased his stage-winning tally with the fastest time through SS8 and SS9 this morning. After Solberg’s capture of back-to-back stage wins, Pajari went on unbeaten on the subsequent three tests.
While Solberg enjoyed a far stronger Saturday in terms of car and driver performance, second place is likely to be as good as it will get for the Swede, a more than satisfactory result, nevertheless.
Adrien Fourmaux over a crest on Saturday in Estonia
© At World
“I was a bit optimistic with my tyre choice this afternoon,” Solberg said. “It was a bit difficult with the tyres. The feeling with the car is good, but Sami has the very good feeling. Just need to feel a little bit more comfortable. It’s very hard for the tyres and hard to know how to rotate them. Sami is doing a great job and that’s it.”
Adrien Fourmaux finished day two in 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. Although the impact tore off a section of his car’s bodywork, serious damage was avoided.
After a slow tyre deflation on SS11 and a wild moment on SS13, Fourmaux has slipped into the clutches of team-mate Thierry Neuville, who outpaced him three times during the afternoon and is just 1.9sec behind with Sunday’s two stages remaining after they set identical times on SS16.
Sébastien Ogier is fifth for Toyota after a “nothing special” day, one place and 30.1sec ahead of team-mate Elfyn Evans.
Ninth overnight, 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.
Thierry Neuville in Saturday action on Delfi Rally Estonia
© At World
With Sesks in tyre preservation mode through SS10 and SS11, Evans was able to pull clear of his Latvian rival, who holds seventh, 13.4sec behind the Welshman. Sesks is still being saddled by a 20sec penalty for leaving the pre-start service two minutes late while his M-Sport Ford mechanics rushed to make repairs following an off in Shakedown on Friday morning.
Esapekka Lappi is eighth having escaped a wild slide on SS12. Jon Armstrong is ninth with Estonia’s WRC2 leader Robert Virves completing the top 10 in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
After enjoying a fine Friday, Josh McErlean experienced a sorry Saturday when a technical issued left him stationary for 10 minutes on SS8. The M-Sport driver would retire with a reported exhaust manifold issue prior to SS10.
Takamoto Katsuta restarted this morning after tyre damage led to his retirement prior to Friday’s final stage and spent the day in road-cleaning mode.
Two passes of the Kääriku test remain on Delfi Rally Estonia’s closing leg tomorrow (Sunday). At 24.39km, the stage is the longest of the WRC event and forms the Wolf Power Stage when it’s repeated at 13:15 local time. The first run is due to get under way at 11:05.
