Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson stunned the WRC elite with a commanding display across the high-speed gravel roads of Estonia, sealing his breakthrough win on debut in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 – nearly 20 years after father Petter’s final WRC success in 2005.

With an overnight lead of 21.1 seconds heading into Sunday’s final three stages and 60km of racing, it was a nervous Solberg who faced a wet-dry stage. He made no mistakes and set the fastest time, as he did on the 24km long penultimate test, taking his tally to nine stage wins.

Solberg also took the maximum Super Sunday bonus points. “After everything, so many years trying and trying and trying and dreaming, and me and Elliott finally made it,” said Solberg. “I just want to say thank you to Toyota, to the test team who helped me get so comfortable, for all the help this weekend from this beautiful, beautiful team. I’ve never had such a good time in my life.”

Home hero Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja brought their Hyundai i20 home in second place and took the championship lead by one point from Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin.

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe completed the podium after Hyundai called time-out on their ferocious fight on Saturday. The current world champion was slapped with a 10-second penalty for a jumped start on the first stage of the day.

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen finished a humbling and lonely fourth overall, with the three-time Rally Estonia winner taking the Wolf Power Stage win.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria ended fifth overall having left bits of their Hyundai in the Estonian countryside after a nose-first landing in the day’s opening stage.

Evans and Scott Martin passed Takamoto Katsuta for sixth in the penultimate stage, but the Japanese driver was forced to retire before the final test.

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen ended seventh ahead of M-Sport Ford’s leading crew, Martins Sesks and Renars Francis, with Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy and Grégoire Munster and Louis Louka rounding out the top ten in their Puma Rally1 machines.

Robert Virves and Jakko Viilo claimed their maiden WRC win on home soil ahead of fellow Estonians Georg Linnamäe and James Morgan.

Read the full report in Motorsport Monday tomorrow.

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Oliver Solberg continued his domination of WRC Delfi Rally Estonia on Saturday, increasing his overnight lead to 21.1 seconds after winning three stages on the fly on Saturday morning.

His Friday performance was helped by a favourable road position, but it was a level playing field on Saturday with three drivers boasting four championships between them, trying to hunt him down to no avail.

Another fastest time on stage 15 kept his confidence high while conceding a few tenths here and there after he claimed he would wind his speed down a bit.

“It’s been an absolutely amazing day,” said Solberg, whose father Petter was the 2003 world champion. “Really consistent speed, no mistakes, just trying to keep it clean. It wasn’t the plan to extend the gap, but hey, it’s fantastic.

“I’m just doing my thing and trying to do every stage as good as I can and as clean as I can with no mistakes, and today there have been no mistakes. They are pushing so hard behind, and I can feel it – it’s tense.”

Behind the flying Toyota, it was all out war between Hyundai’s Ott Tanak and Thierry Neuville as they fought over second position overall. They traded places six times during the day, with the margin between them as close as 0.1 seconds after stage 13.

A ‘suggestion’ from Hyundai’s bosses that it was critically important to bring both cars home in second and third to maximize their Manufacturers’ points saw Neuville lose a little confidence, leaving Tanak four seconds ahead of his teammate at the end of play.

Kalle Rovanperä holds fourth in no-man’s land, too far behind the Hyundais and sufficiently ahead of fifth placed Adrien Fourmaux to gain or lose any positions in the standings. Rovanperä wrung his Toyota’s neck, and tried numerous changes during the day to improve matters but admitted he and Toyota Gazoo Racing were out of options to find more speed.

Fourmaux had a steady run in the third i20 N, successfully absorbing Takamoto Katsuta’s pressure to leave the Japanese Toyota driver trailing by 8.6 seconds in fifth and sixth respectively.

Elfyn Evans was expected to challenge Katsuta and Fourmaux, given his more favourable position of fifth on the road, but he languished in seventh place and like his teammate, simply lacked pace across the longest day of the rally. Not only did he fail to make any progress climbing up the leader board, but he also dropped a couple of seconds further back.

Sami Pajari ended eighth overall, 34 seconds ahead of M-Sport Ford’s leading Puma in the hands of Martins Sesks. Josh McErlean rounded out the top ten with Grégoire Munster languishing in last in the Rally1 class after spending Saturday running first on the road.

Robert Virves continues to lead in WRC2 with a comfortable margin of 26.5 seconds over his fellow Estonian Georg Linnamäe.

Three stages and 60km remain for Sunday, with the possibility of rain at roughly the time the Wolf Power Stage is scheduled to start…

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It may be just a one-off outing in Toyota Gazoo Racing’s GR Yaris Rally1 for Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson, but the 23-year-old grabbed the opportunity with both hands by winning three of Rally Estonia’s six Friday stages.

Solberg was blisteringly quick through Friday morning’s opening 24.35km stage, the longest of the rally, beating his double world champion teammate Kalle Rovanperä by 5.3 seconds, and grabbing the lead of the rally which he held throughout the day.

Solberg went on to win stage four, the repeat of stage two, again beating his illustrious teammate by 2.8 seconds. The young Swede’s third career stage win came on SS7. Stages three, five and six saw Solberg set the second fastest time to close out his return to the top class with a 12.4 second cushion.

“To be leading the rally and to have won a few stages, and to have this amazing feeling in the car, you know – this day has been all about fun,” Solberg grinned. “I don’t know what to say – It’s just been the best day of my life.”

Home hero Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja won stage three, taking second overall off Rovanperä, and went on to set the fastest time on stage five, cementing his overall position in the standings. “It’s just so loose and [there’s] no grip whatsoever,” he said. “I did everything I could, it is as it is at the moment.”

Hyundai’s defending champion Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe ended the day in third position. The Belgian duo won the opening super special stage on Thursday but lost time in Friday’s morning loop. Neuville did not have confidence in his car to challenge but after the midday service, he began to reel Tanak in. 1.8 seconds separates the two i20 N drivers after Neuville took the scratch time on the day’s final super special stage.

Rovanperä ended the day in fourth overall, 5.9 seconds behind Neuville. “It’s pretty much the maximum we can do with this car and the current feeling,” the Finn reflected.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria ended the day in fifth overall after a frustrating morning as he battled for grip. Set-up changes in service transformed his Hyundai and he immediately went on to win SS 6 and only lost the top spot in stage seven by 0.3 second to Solberg.

Takamoto Katsuta succumbed to Fourmaux’s newfound speed which was compounded by a spin and intercom issues to end sixth overall in the third TGR Yaris.

Elfyn Evans, first on the road as championship leader, struggled for traction and languished in eighth – ahead of fellow Toyota driver Sami Pajari, whose morning was hampered by an intermittent power loss.

Mārtiņš Sesks and Josh McErlean rounded out the top 10 in M-Sport Ford Pumas, split by 18.6sec. Grégoire Munster was 11th after a difficult day that included brake issues, a tyre deflation and an overshoot.

In WRC2, Robert Virves is dominating the category with a 34.4 second lead over his Estonian countryman Georg Linnamäe. Roope Korhonen, Mikko Heikkila and Lauri Joona round out the top five.

Pre-event favourite Nikolay Gryazin crashed out early in stage two.

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Kalle Rovanpera finished Saturday 29.1s ahead of teammate Elfyn Evans to assert his dominance over his rivals. Rovanpera won seven of the nine stages as Evans and Ott Tanak offered no response to the Finn’s speed.

Showers mixed with sunshine offered a challenge to the field in the morning but despite a slow start on the opening test, Kalle would go on a hattrick of stage wins afterwards. “I Had a really bad stage, I was losing seconds everywhere and wasn’t happy with my run at all” he went on: “I was not so awake as I normally am and not where I wanted to be, but the last two stages were nice”

Some trepidation from Evans in the tricky conditions meant that he never got confident enough to attack his teammate. Ott Tanak ran a consistent day with three top three times in the morning to cement himself in third place heading into the final day.

The Hyundai driver was followed by Thierry Neuville after a drama-free day. Neuville trailed Tanak by 70s after gaining fourth place from Esapekka Lappi. Lappi had to conduct a wheel change following a heavy landing after a jump.

Behind Neuville was the other Toyota of Takamoto Katsuta. The Japanese driver took fifth from Ford runner, Adrien Fourmaux and gapped the Frenchman by 10.9s.

Lappi would fall to seventh after his wheel change but would go onto a big charge to close the gap to Fourmaux by 30s. Lappi has a 41.5s target for the final day if he is to usurp the Ford man.

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Kalle Rovanpera took the Rally Estonia lead late on in the day after his teammate, Elfyn Evans dropped 22 seconds on the last stage. Deteriorating weather allowed the Finnish driver to take the final stage by 15s due to running first and having better conditions compared to his rivals.

Craig Breen had started the day in the lead after winning the opening test on Thursday however would be running fourth by the time he slid off the road. Breen collided with a post on the grass which caused his Ford Puma’s front left suspension to break, forcing him to retire.

Evans had a better start to the day however, the Welshman won five of the dry stages in the morning before Rovanpera would half the gap in the following two. Evans would slide off the final test of Vastsemoisa due to the gravel turning into mud with the heavy rain coming down.

Evans would comment: “The conditions were pretty horrific and lots of aquaplaning at the start of the stage and we had a fair ‘moment’. Let’s say I was a bit more careful after that, it was a bit of a surprise the conditions were so bad at the start.”

Home favourite Ott Tanak would finish the day in third only 44.3s off the lead. The Hyundai driver had to contend with handling problems and a heater pipe blowing onto his windscreen and misting his view.

Esapekka Lappi would make it a third Toyota in the top 4 despite going off-road on the final stage. Lappi had been suffering from brake problems all morning but would be able to drive around the issue to bring the car back.

The Hyundai of Thierry Neuville would finish the day in fifth as he would be another driver that would suffer from handling issues. The Belgian is only 7s behind Lappi making it game on still for Saturday’s runs.

Adrien Fourmaux was the best of the Ford contingent in sixth place. Fourmaux’s windscreen wiper blades failed which led to the Frenchman overshooting a corner on the second to last stage of the day.

Fourmaux’s teammate, Pierre-Louis Loubet wouldn’t have much luck as he rolled his car on the final stage, dropping a chunk of time.

Takamoto Katsuta would end the day seventh as the Japanese driver spent the day building his confidence after a big roll in Thursday’s shakedown.

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Kalle Rovanperä made history as the youngest winner of an FIA World Rally Championship round on Sunday after a masterful drive at Rally Estonia.

The 20-year-old Finn is more than two years younger than fellow countryman Jari-Matti Latvala, now his team principal at Toyota Gazoo Racing, when he claimed the record in 2008.

After fending off a fierce early challenge from Craig Breen, Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen stormed clear on dusty and high-speed tracks near Tartu to win this seventh round of the season by 59.9sec in a Yaris World Rally Car.

Rovanperä, who now lives in Estonia, celebrated on the podium with father Harri, who scored his sole WRC victory in Sweden in 2001. Today’s win was the first for a Finnish driver in the championship since Latvala won Rally Australia in 2018.

Rovanperä has endured a barren run of results of late with just one top six finish in the last four rounds, but his maiden victory promoted him to fourth in the championship standings with five rounds remaining.

“It has been a difficult season and it’s really nice to get my first win here in Estonia,” said a jubilant Rovanperä. “It’s almost a home rally for me now and a lot of Estonian fans were supporting me.

“Our results haven’t been so good, but we’ve proved the pace is there and today we brought it home. To be the youngest winner is amazing. It could have happened earlier, but now it’s here.”

Estonia is proving a happy hunting ground for Breen – he has now finished second at both the rally’s two WRC appearances. His only scare came late on Saturday evening when he clipped a huge roadside rock and damaged his Hyundai i20’s front suspension.

The Irishman headed team-mate Thierry Neuville by 12.5sec. The Belgian’s hopes of reeling in his colleague were damaged by a 10sec penalty after checking in late at a time control on Sunday morning following technical problems.

Championship leader Sébastien Ogier finished fourth in another Yaris. The Frenchman ended 11.6sec behind Neuville, content to bag solid points in his quest for an eighth drivers’ crown after opening the roads where traction was at a premium in Friday’s first leg.

Team-mate Elfyn Evans finished 43.1sec behind in fifth after never truly getting to grips with the conditions. Ogier now leads the Welshman by 37 points in the championship, with their Toyota squad maintaining its 59-point lead in the manufacturers’ standings.

Teemu Suninen was sixth in a Ford Fiesta, despite a final stage spin.

The championship returns to asphalt next month when Belgium makes its first WRC appearance. Renties Ypres Rally Belgium takes place on August 13-15.

Final positions
1. K Rovanperä / J Halttunen FIN Toyota Yaris 2hr 51min 29.1s
2. C Breen / P Nagle IRL Hyundai i20 +59.9s
3. T Neuville / M Wydaeghe BEL Hyundai i20 +1min 12.4s
4. S Ogier / J Ingrassia FRA Toyota Yaris +1min 24.0s
5. E Evans / S Martin GBR Toyota Yaris +2min 07.1s
6. T Suninen / M Markkula FIN Ford Fiesta +7min 07.3s

FIA World Rally Championship (after round 7 of 12)
1. S Ogier 148pts
2. E Evans 111
3. T Neuville 96p
4. K Rovanperä 82
5. O Tänak 7

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Kalle Rovanperä laid early claim to Estonia’s king of speed title on Friday by winning six of the eight special stages to lead the country’s FIA World Rally Championship encounter.

The 20-year-old Finn, who now lives in the Baltic country, ended Rally Estonia’s first full day with an 8.5sec advantage over Craig Breen after enthralling action over blisteringly fast gravel roads south of second city Tartu.

Both men are hunting their maiden WRC win and such was the ferocity of their duel that the experienced Thierry Neuville and seven-time world champion Sébastien Ogier were trailing almost a minute adrift.

Rovanperä, who led after Thursday night’s short curtain-raising test, won three of this morning’s stages in his Toyota Yaris. He added three more fastest times this afternoon, but could not break free from Breen’s shackles.

“It’s tight – the gap is virtually nothing,” explained Rovanperä. “Craig has been doing really nice times the whole day, so tomorrow will be a big fight. There were many jumps and many of them you can really enjoy. Some you have to go quite big and it’s a bit harsh in the car.”

Breen led briefly this morning. He won one stage, tied with Rovanperä in another and was second in six tests in his Hyundai i20.

The heat of the battle was matched by air temperatures hovering just below 30°C, but pre-event favourite and Estonian hero Ott Tänak was left feeling cold.

He won the opening Arula test to relegate Rovanperä from top spot but plunged to seventh after a front right puncture in the following Otepää. Worse was to come in the next stage.

“I went wide in a corner and basically I went on the field and during that I knocked off two tyres. I had another two punctures and obviously we had no spares anymore and it was not possible to continue,” explained Tänak, who began the loop with just one spare wheel.

Neuville and Ogier were left to scrap over third. Neuville lost time with a rear left puncture while the championship leader drove superbly to minimise the handicap of opening the soft and sandy roads, where grip was reduced compared to those further back.

They traded positions before Neuville moved ahead in the penultimate stage to finish 6.0sec in front and 53.4sec off the lead.

Elfyn Evans twice overshot junctions. He never recovered the time lost to end 15.7sec adrift of team-mate Ogier and nearly two minutes clear of Teemu Suninen’s Ford Fiesta. A rear left puncture and a suspected water pump issue delayed the Finn.

Takamoto Katsuta retired his Yaris from third after co-driver Dan Barritt suffered a back injury after a heavy landing over jump. Gus Greensmith exited after stopping several times with a technical issue which affected the power from his Fiesta’s engine.

Saturday brings four challenging new stages for the longest leg of the event, containing 132.18km of action. Identical loops north and south of Tartu are driven morning and afternoon before the day wraps up with an evening re-run of Thursday’s short city test.

Leading positions after Friday
1. K Rovanperä / J Halttunen FIN Toyota Yaris 1hr 06min 54.4s
2. C Breen / P Nagle IRL Hyundai i20 +8.5s
3. T Neuville / M Wydaeghe BEL Hyundai i20 +53.4s
4. S Ogier / J Ingrassia FRA Toyota Yaris +59.4s
5. E Evans / S Martin GBR Toyota Yaris +1min 15.1s
6. T Suninen / M Markkula FIN Ford Fiesta +3min 14.9s

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Home hero Ott Tanak has retired from Rally Estonia on the opening day of action after an eventful day which saw the Hyundai driver crash into a ditch.

Tanak had been the early leader on Friday, but lost his advantage when he suffered a puncture which caused the tyre to delaminate and damaged the bodywork on his i20 at the halfway mark of the second stage.

Tanak would recover to the finish having dropped to seventh to carry out repairs. However on fourth stage things went from bad to worse as he ran wide into a ditch, just over 7km into the stage.

The 2019 world champion then rejoined the road, only to later pull off with damage to his radiator. Tanak called it a day, unable to complete the stage.

“Ott Tanak forced to retire from the day at Rally Estonia,” confirmed his Hyundai team. “The team will recover the car and bring it back to service.”

It’s hoped Tanak can rejoin the event on Saturday under the restart rules.

Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera currently leads Rally Estonia by 2.5s over Tanak’s team-mate, Craig Breen.

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The World Rally Championship heads to Croatia for the first time next weekend, and despite a six day test in the country, Toyota are unsure of what to expect from the all-asphalt event.

The Japanese manufacturer currently leads the WRC standings with Kalle Rovanpera, four points ahead of Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville.

But heading to a new venue, team boss Jari-Matti Latvala is expecting “challenging” conditions after experiencing similar roads during a six-day test to familiarise themselves with the new Pirelli tyres.

“It is very interesting to be going to Croatia for the first time with the WRC, for what looks to be quite a fast asphalt rally,” he commented. “The surface appears to be generally quite abrasive but we understand that in some places it can also be very slippery, so it could be really challenging for the drivers.

“Normally the Yaris WRC has been very strong on asphalt, as we have seen in Monza and Monte Carlo recently, but we also know that we cannot take anything for granted and that we need to work hard to be successful.

“We have done six days of testing in Croatia, trying to use roads that are as similar as possible to what we are expecting to find on the rally.

“Of course, we know the car well now and it is not so easy to keep making big steps with the setup, so our main focus has been on how to get the best out of the new Pirelli tyres.”

Championship leader Rovanpera insists he’s not feeling additional pressure heading into the event because of his points position.

“I’m really happy with how the has season has started for me and hopefully we can carry on the same way,” added the Finn.

“I’m not feeling any pressure even though I’m leading the championship: It’s only been two rallies and we have a long season ahead. For sure it’s nice to be in this position but we have to work hard to try to stay in the fight.

“I’m excited for Croatia: It will be the first time for me on a proper asphalt event with the Yaris, as so far I’ve only had events with winter conditions like Monza and Monte Carlo.

“I’m hoping that we can have dry weather like we did on the test. The stages look really nice, but if it’s raining, I think there will be a lot of mud on the road and that will be tricky.”

Elfyn Evans is also unsure of what to expect, adding: “We’ve been able to study videos of the stages to learn as much as we can, but nothing can substitute actually being there on the recce and seeing the route for real.

“The stages look quite mixed, with some wide fast parts and some very narrow bumpy parts, and there could be quite a lot of cutting. So it looks like we need to be quite adaptable to the different surfaces and different character of stages that we’ll face.

“We don’t have masses of experience with this car on dry asphalt or with the Pirelli tyres, so in testing we were trying quite a few different settings. But the feeling in the car was generally positive straight away from the first runs.”

Seven-time rally champion Sebastien Ogier is keen to continue experiencing new events, despite his long-time in the WRC.

“Croatia will be a new rally and I’m excited to still discover new things in this sport at this point in my career. It has been a long time since we had a full asphalt rally like this one, and the Yaris is a great car to drive on asphalt, so I’m sure it will be fun.

“The pre-event test was very important because we have new tyres this season and this was the first chance to drive the slick tyres on dry asphalt. I did a lot of runs, trying all of the the different combinations of tyres and trying to be ready to make the best choices during the rally,” added the Frenchman.

The post Toyota unsure of what to expect at ‘challenging’ Rally Croatia appeared first on Motorsport Week.

The World Rally Championship finally returned to action in September with the first ever Rally Estonia event, which saw home hero Ott Tanak take victory, despite a late scare on the Sunday. Check out our favourite images from the event below…

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