WRC Rally Estonia 2026: Pajari still on course despite Solberg’s counterattack

– Toyota pilot Sami Pajari remains the driver to beat at Rally Estonia, the ninth round of the 2026 World Rally Championship (WRC). After an impressive drive where he won all seven special stages (SS) on Friday, Pajari continued his dominance on the fast gravel roads into Saturday morning.

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The Finn, who is aiming for his first WRC victory, won the first two tests of the morning loop. This extended his streak to nine consecutive stage wins and increased his lead over Solberg to 17.6 seconds. However, his streak ended on the tenth special stage “Peipsiaare 2”.

Here his teammate Oliver Solberg struck back, taking 3.3 seconds from his rival. After some setup changes, Solberg was visibly more satisfied with the feel of his GR Yaris. He then also won the eleventh stage “Mustvee 2” by 0.2 seconds ahead of Pajari. Thus, Pajari entered the service park with a reduced lead of 14.1 seconds over Solberg.

“It seems Oliver was extremely fast and pushed like crazy [on SS10]. I don’t want to make it easy for Oliver to catch up, so we have to keep pushing,” said Pajari. “I have to focus on my own thing. The feeling is still there, so we have to keep pushing.”

Oliver Solberg charges in pursuit of Pajari

For Solberg, the changes to his car’s setup paid off. “That was the goal yesterday, to adjust the car to finally find out why the feeling wasn’t like last year, and we found some answers. It should be more or less the same as last year, and the feeling is a bit better,” explained Solberg, who had achieved his first WRC win in Estonia in 2025.

However, the morning loop was not without a scare for Solberg, as he felt a vibration on the right front tire. “I was so scared the tire would explode, after what happened to Taka [Katsuta] yesterday,” said Solberg. “I backed off a bit because it scared me a little. In the end, everything was fine and I probably could have pushed more, but you never know. If it blows during the stage, you’re done.”

Hyundai duel for third place intensifies

Adrien Fourmaux of Hyundai continues to hold third place, despite surviving a scare on the tenth stage when he hit a corner marker with the front right corner of his i20 N Rally1.

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The Frenchman had set the third fastest times on stages eight and nine, but this incident allowed his teammate Thierry Neuville to close the gap to 8.7 seconds. Fourmaux was then forced to manage a slow puncture over the last five kilometers of the eleventh stage. Fourth-placed Neuville further reduced the gap to 5.6 seconds.

Behind Neuville, reigning world champion Sebastien Ogier (Toyota) lost ground in the battle with the Belgian. He finished the loop 19.8 seconds behind Neuville and 1:04.4 minutes behind the leader.

“It didn’t go as we hoped. I couldn’t increase my speed,” said Ogier. “I think I still hesitate too much, especially on the first runs on the high-speed forest sections. It’s difficult to be decisive enough, and at the moment, that’s the speed we have.”

WRC leader Elfyn Evans responds

Ogier entered service with a 16.7-second lead over championship leader Elfyn Evans (Toyota). Evans was the biggest winner of this loop. He started the day ninth but managed to move up to seventh after the eighth stage, passing Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai) and Josh McErlean (M-Sport Ford).

McErlean’s teammate Martins Sesks also ran into trouble when he suffered a right front tire damage on the ninth stage, which pushed Evans up to sixth place. Sesks had to conserve his remaining tires to finish the loop. Jon Armstrong (M-Sport Ford) completed the Rally1 field in ninth, despite suffering a nosebleed at the end of the last stage of the loop.

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The crews expect five more special stages on Saturday afternoon.