Sami Pajari and co-driver Marko Salminen claimed their maiden overall FIA World Rally Championship victory at Rally Estonia. The Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2 crew were immediately on the pace in their Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 from the opening shakedown, and a remarkable run of fastest times on the first nine special stages left the rest of the field unable to match their speed. The commanding victory was not only the first for the Finnish duo in the top category, but also the first for Toyota’s second team.
This year’s Rally Estonia began on Friday, with a slightly more compact schedule that was welcomed by many drivers. Pajari was among those who appreciated the format, travelling from his home in Finland to Tartu only on Tuesday. Friday morning’s shakedown already hinted at the pace of Pajari and Salminen. They set the fastest time on their very first run and repeated the feat on all three attempts, although championship leader Elfyn Evans matched their time on the final run.
Once the rally got underway early on Friday afternoon, the Finnish crew, starting fourth on the road, immediately displayed astonishing speed. Seven special stages were contested on Friday, and Pajari and Salminen topped the timesheets on every single one of them. By the end of the day they led Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson by 14.7 seconds, with Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria a further 1.8 seconds behind. The rest of the field was already trailing by significantly larger margins.
“I can be very happy at the end of the day. To take a clean sweep of stage wins and be in the lead is really good, and more importantly the feeling behind the wheel has been really great. The driving has just been flowing quite naturally. Of course, we are pushing but I don’t feel like I’m taking big risk and it feels under control. The morning was super tight with our rivals but in the afternoon we managed to make a bit more of a gap. Still, it’s only Friday. There’s two long days still to go, so no chance to relax yet, but I’m looking forward to tomorrow and will just try to keep enjoying it.”
Saturday featured nine special stages, and the Finnish pair continued exactly where they had left off, opening the day with two more fastest times. Gradually, defending Rally Estonia winner Oliver Solberg found his rhythm and responded with two stage wins before the midday service. After the break, however, Pajari struck back with three more fastest times, extending his advantage over Solberg to 25.8 seconds. Thierry Neuville and Solberg shared the final two stage wins of the day, but Pajari still returned to the overnight halt with a comfortable 25-second lead over the Swede. Meanwhile, Fourmaux had fallen more than 50 seconds behind.
“It’s been another really good day. Again I had a really great feeling with the car and we could start with two stage wins this morning. Then Oliver was having really good pace to bring the gap back down a bit. So we needed to try and step it up for the afternoon and we managed to do that, adding another 10 seconds to our lead. It wasn’t easy with some different stage conditions and difficult tyre choices, but I’m super happy and now we just need to bring it home tomorrow. We don’t know exactly what the weather will be like – the forecast suggests it could be tricky – but I’m looking forward to it.”
Rain arrived overnight, but the Rally1 crews completed both Sunday stages in mostly dry conditions. While some drivers did need to use their windscreen wipers, the heaviest showers mainly affected the support categories.
Sunday consisted solely of the 24.39-kilometre Kääriku stage, run twice. As expected, Solberg set the fastest time on the opening pass, but Pajari was only 0.4 seconds slower in second place. Although collecting Super Sunday points was not the team’s primary objective, another strong stage time came almost effortlessly.
“The feeling was good and the rhythm was there. It was important to have a clean run on the first pass because you never know what the conditions will be like later. We have a good gap heading into the final stage,” Pajari reflected, holding a 24.6-second advantage.
There were no major surprises on the Power Stage and Pajari secured his first WRC win.
“It’s simply an amazing feeling. ‘Arigato gozaimasu’ to Morizo-san and everyone at TGR-WRT for your support and for trusting in me. Thanks to all my supporters, family and friends who stood behind me even when we had tricky times. I also want to thank myself for not giving up and for continuing to push. We’ve had a good first part of the season and after being so many times on the podium, there was no doubt this result was coming, but it’s never easy at this level. This is one of my favourite rallies together with Finland, and I was just enjoying the driving and everything felt natural. Let’s now enjoy the moment before our home event at Rally Finland.”