Oliver Solberg leads on his debut with TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team at Rally Estonia after a stunning performance on his first full day back competing at rallying’s highest level.
Solberg has been handed the opportunity to drive the GR YARIS Rally1 on Estonia’s fast gravel stages following his strong results so far this season in WRC2, where he currently leads the championship with the GR Yaris Rally2.
After two days of testing in the car in Finland last week, the main goal for Solberg’s first start at the top level since 2022 was to gather experience, but he made an instant impression in Friday morning’s first forest stage with his maiden fastest time in the FIA World Rally Championship, going 5.3 seconds quicker than anyone else.
Moving into the rally lead, Solberg also won the second pass of the Peipsiääre stage and came a close second in both runs over Mustvee to end the morning leading by 8.5s over local hero Ott Tänak (Hyundai). He continued to increase his advantage in the afternoon, when he won the second pass of the Kambja stage, and finished the day 12.4s in front of Tänak.
Kalle Rovanperä was second quickest to Solberg in both passes of Peipsiääre while holding third overall during the morning. With more road cleaning to contend with in Kambja, he conceded third position to Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) but the three-time Rally Estonia winner remains within 20.1s of the lead overnight. Takamoto Katsuta is sixth, just 0.2s behind Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai), after sharing the fastest time on the super special on the streets of Elva that rounded out the day.
Elfyn Evans is one place further back in seventh after dealing with more road cleaning running first on the road as championship leader, with the first pass of Kambja proving particularly costly for time. Sami Pajari is eighth after an issue in the braking system on his TGR-WRT2 entry was resolved in mid-day service, allowing him to show stronger pace in the afternoon.
Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“Oliver’s performance has been a positive surprise for everybody today. Of course, we knew he’s fast but he has surprised me and I think it surprised Oliver himself just what he was able to do today with a really clean and quick drive. If he can just do a similar day to this tomorrow, it would be fantastic. It’s looking close between the top cars and I’m sure it will be a tough fight tomorrow. Kalle was struggling a bit with the grip and Elfyn knew he would lose time once more as the first car on the road, but tomorrow should be cleaner for them. Taka had a good solid day and Sami too could show more performance this afternoon once we fixed the issue on his car.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s been a demanding day and a bit more difficult than we were hoping it would be. Already this morning I struggled with the grip: we had seen much damper conditions in recce but the sun had been out since and dried out the roads and made conditions looser for us running first on the road. Then the first stage after service was particularly difficult; I think you could see it quite clearly from the times. We’ve lost quite a lot of time to the leaders so we’ll be looking for some more speed with a better position tomorrow.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“The morning loop was quite good for us. The conditions were tricky after the rain earlier in the week with some changeable grip levels, but it was a clean start for us. We made some changes for the afternoon to try to optimise the grip of the car. Still I felt we were leaving some time on the stages and not being able to drive as sharp and precise as usual. At least we tried some things and know a bit more about the direction to go in for tomorrow. We still pushed through the whole day and tomorrow we will do the same.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“Things started quite difficult this morning. I was struggling a lot, but I tried changing a few things on the car setup during the morning and the feeling was getting better and better. Then, unfortunately, the afternoon was still a bit of a struggle. We will keep working together with the engineers and my teammates to continue improving the car, and I will try to improve my driving and I will give it everything to be better tomorrow.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It was an unfortunate start this morning for us with the problem that we had from the first stage today. It was quite a long morning loop before we could get to service, but thankfully the team was able to fix the issue and we could enjoy the afternoon’s stages. It was a pity that we lost the time in the overall standings, but I’m trying not to focus too much on that and just focus on my driving, and the pace is starting to be on the level where we should be, somewhere close to the front. Tomorrow is another day with some even faster sections and I’m looking forward to it.”
Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
“Today has been the best day of my life. It was a dream come true just to be driving this car, but to be leading the rally and winning a few stages, it’s been a lot of fun. The car has been amazing to drive. We worked in our test last week to get a comfortable feeling and we’ve been able to take that into the rally. I’m learning with every stage but I’ve been able to have a clean rhythm. The guys behind me will get a better road position tomorrow and I’m not sure I’m ready to push harder with my limited experience, but I will just try to do the same as today and see what it brings.”
End of day two (Friday):
1 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 1h06m33.4s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +12.4s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +14.2s
4 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +20.1s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +29.8s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +30.0s
7 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +41.4s
8 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m05.1s
9 Mārtiņš Sesks/Renārs Francis (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m11.4s
10 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +1m30.0s
(Results as of 20:00 on Friday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
What’s next?
Saturday is the longest day of the rally with 125.76 competitive kilometres to be driven across nine stages following a similar format to Friday: the Raanitsa and Kanepi stages are tackled twice in the morning before mid-day service, with Otepää and Karaski run twice in the afternoon before a return to the Tartu super special rounds out the day.
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