Sami Pajari has achieved an impressive start at the Estonia Rally, leading the competition thanks to a perfect clean sweep of wins in Friday afternoon’s stages. The Finnish driver, with his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, has demonstrated an exceptional return on Estonia’s fast dirt tracks, finishing the first run of three stages with a 4.1-second lead over his teammate, Oliver Solberg, last year’s winner.
Pajari expressed satisfaction with his performance, stating that he enjoys driving in this environment: ‘It is a beautiful place to race. Everything is going well.’ In contrast, Solberg has been unable to replicate the feeling he had during his victory in his debut with Toyota, traveling with a sense of frustration and a third-place position at the end of the first stage.
The Swedish driver will be challenged to improve his performance after suffering several accidents in recent races, so any small advancement will be welcome. He was just 0.8 seconds ahead of Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, who, for his part, avoided a serious accident on a jump during the stage, managing to stay in the competition.
On the technical side, Thierry Neuville reported difficulties with the balance of his car, finishing fourth, while Sébastien Ogier was 14.6 seconds away from the leader. Ogier remained calm, indicating that this was only the start of the race.
From the M-Sport Ford team, Josh McErlean showed a notable performance, maintaining sixth place in the overall standings, followed by other Toyota and Hyundai drivers. The championship is full of surprises, and it is already expected that the competition will become more intense with the afternoon stage repeats ahead of a super special that will close the day.
In the WRC2 category, Estonian Robert Virves remains at the front with just a 0.2-second lead over Finnish Mikko Heikkila.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
