Solberg closing in on maiden WRC victory

After a dominant Saturday, Oliver Solberg headed into the final day of Rally Estonia with a 21.2s lead, as the Toyota driver closed in on a maiden World Rally Championship victory.

Solberg started the day with a 12.4s lead but faced a similar road position to his rivals. This placement would test the Swede, as he looked to repeat Friday’s impressive pace on Estonia’s fast gravel stages.

However, the 23-year-old, competing in a one-off drive in Toyota’s Rally1 line-up, delivered an emphatic performance to complete the day’s nine stages with his advantage over Hyundai’s Ott Tanak growing.

Solberg added four more stage wins to his tally that stands at seven, after claiming his first career WRC stage win on Friday. Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson either took a stage win or were within 1.2s of the pace on each Saturday test, which outlined their ability to produce consistent speed.

Solberg won three of the four stages across the morning loop, before beating Hyundai duo Tanak and Thierry Neuville by 0.5s on the second pass through the jump-laden Otepää stage on Saturday afternoon. Three Sunday stages and the prospect of rain stand in the way of Solberg from claiming what would be an emotional breakthrough win.

“For sure [this was better than yesterday] as everyone had the same starting position and I could do the stages without any mistakes, win some stages and be clean and consistent,” said Solberg.

“It is not easy when you have these two guys [Tanak and Neuville] behind, and I haven’t really figured out what I have done but I tried my best. Of course [I have thought about the win]. I have been thinking about how to give myself the best chance not to be caught and I was thinking they would catch me, but not yet.”

Battles throughout the field

Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Romain Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

While Solberg grabbed the headlines at the front, Tanak and Neuville were locked in an intense fight for second. Tanak started the day in second only for a couple of mistakes in stage nine resulted in the local favourite ceding the position to Neuville. The position changed hands on four more occasions throughout the day before Tanak took control by 4.0s at the end of the day.

“Obviously it has been frustrating since the testing we did before Estonia, so I had the feeling it would be a tough rally and we are having a tough rally,” said Tanak. “We need to push for that [second position for the championship points.]”

Kalle Rovanperä’s hopes of a podium evaporated, as the Finn’s struggles to gel with his GR Yaris and Hankook gravel tyres continued. A frustrated Rovanpera felt he’d maximised his package but was ultimately unable to pull himself into the battle. Rovanpera, who has previously dominated the last three WRC editions of the event, will head into Sunday in fourth, 26.5s adrift of third-placed Neuville in fourth.

“We are trying our best and at the moment there is not much else we can do,” said Rovanpera.

Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux delivered a series of strong stage times to emerge from a battle with Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta in fifth [+1m08.2s]. The pair were split by 2.8s at midday service before Fourmaux managed to pull clear of the Japanese, who had a mysterious issue with his GR Yaris.

Championship leader Elfyn Evans endured a miserable day mired in no man’s land in seventh [+1m30.4s]. The Welshman was unable to extract the pace from his Toyota to climb the leaderboard.

“It is very frustrating [not to find progress] as there are four of us close together and we can’t really make any impression on the guy further down the road,” said Evans.

When asked if there was something that could be learned from Solberg’s set up, he added: “He [Oliver] has something quite radical with his set up which is not an option for us.”

Joshua McErlean, Eoin Treacy, M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1

Photo by: M-Sport

Toyota’s Sami Pajari ended the day 26.5s ahead of M-Sport-Ford’s Mārtiņš Sesks to hold eighth [+2m14.5s], while M-Sport’s Josh McErlean [+4m13.6s] and Gregoire Munster [+4m48.5s] rounded out the Rally1 field.

Estonia’s Robert Virves topped the WRC2 field with a 26.5s margin from compatriot Georg Linnamae.