Toyota driver Sami Pajari puts on a gravel spectacle at Rally Estonia and dominates Saturday, while a thrilling Hyundai battle for third place rages behind him
Sami Pajari has taken a huge step closer to his first victory in the World Rally Championship (WRC): At Rally Estonia, the ninth round of the 2026 season, the Finn delivered another flawless masterclass of driving on Saturday’s fast gravel stages.
The young Toyota driver therefore heads into the final day on Sunday with a comfortable 25-second lead over his teammate Oliver Solberg. Earlier, Pajari capped off an exhausting, grueling Saturday featuring nine special stages (SS) with an impressively confident drive.
Pajari had already started the day with a 14.7-second lead—a result of his flawless performance on Friday, when he won all seven stages. He initially extended this lead to 17.6 seconds before Solberg was briefly able to halt the Finn’s winning streak.
Solberg strikes back, but Pajari counters with ice-cold precision
Solberg felt noticeably more comfortable behind the wheel of his GR Yaris than he had the day before. With fastest times on special stages 10 and 11, he whittled Pajari’s lead down to 14.1 seconds.
In the afternoon, however, the leader mercilessly reestablished the old pecking order: With three consecutive fastest times on the afternoon loop, Pajari finally put his pursuer out of the running. Twelve of a possible 16 special stage wins so far have gone to the outstanding Finn.
“It’s not easy, and it’s not supposed to be,” Pajari summed up. “Still, we feel pretty comfortable in the lead. But there are still quite a few kilometers to go tomorrow, so it’s going to be hard work. However, on the liaison stage, there was a fan holding a brilliant sign: ‘Sami, don’t listen to Marko [the co-driver], just go full throttle!’ That’s exactly what I’m going to try to do.”
A rare mistake from Sami this weekend—but no harm done, and a stage win to top it off WRC | DelfiRallyEstonia pic.twitter.com/bnldCUV3s9
— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) July 18, 2026
Solberg also struck a conciliatory tone. The feel of the car strongly reminded him of his drive to his impressive first WRC victory at the same venue last year. The winner of the Monte Carlo Rally admits, however, that he was occasionally too cautious in order to avoid tire damage.
“This morning definitely went better than yesterday; the feeling is coming back,” said Solberg. “What’s still missing is the absolute willingness to take risks. And that’s exactly what you need to beat Sami—he’s doing a phenomenal job out there! This afternoon, our tire choice was perhaps a tad too optimistic, which made it difficult to constantly push at the absolute limit.”
Thrilling Team Battle at Hyundai for Third Place
The battle for the remaining podium spot was particularly intense: Hyundai teammates Adrien Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville engaged in a gripping back-and-forth. Fourmaux’s 7.5-second lead from the morning had shrunk to a razor-thin 1.9 seconds heading into the final special stage of the day.
On the 15th special stage in particular, a strongly performing Neuville went on the attack: He took a full 4.2 seconds off Fourmaux’s time, securing for himself and Hyundai the long-awaited first special stage victory of this rally. On the final spectator stage, neither driver gave an inch—they crossed the finish line simultaneously. With that, Fourmaux narrowly held on to third place overall heading into Sunday.
“A good day, even though tire wear was enormous in the afternoon,” Fourmaux summarized. “I gave it my all; the stages were a real pleasure. Tomorrow, I just want to go on the attack again on the last two big special stages.”
Neuville is in an aggressive mood: “I’m happy with the afternoon and our tire management. Adrien was driving incredibly fast. Let’s have some fun together tomorrow and see who comes out on top in the end.”
Ogier in No Man’s Land, Evans Launches a Comeback
While the track became grippier with each passing car, reigning world champion Sébastien Ogier lacked the decisive pace on Saturday to intervene in the duel between the two Hyundai drivers. The Frenchman finished the day in a solitary fifth place (+1:32.8 min).
“It was definitely a somewhat long but uneventful day,” Ogier summed up pragmatically. “It would have been extremely difficult to make up any ground today anyway. We defended our position—that was the goal. Tomorrow we’ll definitely have to step it up a notch.”
Despite the massive handicap of having to clear the gravel as the “road sweeper” on Friday, championship leader Elfyn Evans launched a valuable comeback on Saturday. Starting from ninth place, the Welshman charged his way up to sixth—a leap that could still be worth its weight in gold in the title race.
Evans also benefited from his rivals’ misfortune: Josh McErlean (M-Sport Ford) had to retire early from the rally due to a defect in the exhaust manifold. Teammate Martins Sesks suffered a front-right tire blowout on the ninth stage but managed to hold on to seventh place by the end of the day.
Sesks thus ranks well ahead of a visibly frustrated Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai), who was unable to keep up with the pace of his teammates Neuville and Fourmaux at any point. Rounding out the top 10 are M-Sport driver Jon Armstrong and Estonian local hero Robert Virves.
Virves heads into the final day as the WRC2 leader with a narrow 10.1-second lead over Finland’s Roope Korhonen. For Toyota driver Takamoto Katsuta, however, Saturday turned into nothing more than a test session. After a double tire puncture cut his Friday short, he did manage to restart, but suffered greatly from the disadvantage of his early starting position.
