After two rough and punishing gravel events, the going gets fast as the World Rally Championship returns this week in Estonia.
But who’s hot, and who’s not, as the season reaches one of its most crucial phases in the championship?
Here’s DirtFish’s form guide ahead of Rally Estonia 2023:
#69 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 2nd-3rd-1st
Best Estonia result: 1st (2021 & 2022)
Based purely on past form, Kalle Rovanperä has to start as favorite to win Rally Estonia, given he’s won both of the previous two editions.
But he’s looking handy in terms of current form too, with three podiums (and one victory) from his last three starts. That run of one podium from four in 2023 is looking like a distant memory, isn’t it!
Unlike so many others, Rovanperä doesn’t need to win here given his championship lead has swelled to over 40 points. That relaxes the pressure on his shoulders, which could make him go even faster.
The only thing seemingly standing in his way is his position as first on the road, but that shouldn’t hold him back too much if at all.
#33 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 3rd-4th-DNF
Best Estonia result: 2nd (2022)
Behind the world champion, a cluster of drivers are all separated by just a handful of points (as has been the case for most of the season) and Elfyn Evans finds himself leading that pack seven rounds into the year.
It’s been a typically understated campaign from Toyota’s Welshman who, aside from that big off in Portugal, has been solid and deceptively fast.
Estonia has always been a mixed event for Evans though. He struggled in 2021 but found some decent form last year – there was no shame in being beaten by Rovanperä given the form he was in this time 12 months ago!
With that being said, Evans would dearly love to go one better this time around.
#8 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Ford Puma Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 6th-35th-4th
Best Estonia result: 1st (2020)
With a win and a second place from the first four rounds, Ott Tänak’s first season back at M-Sport Ford had defied expectations early on. But since the return to gravel, things have plateaued for the 2019 world champion.
There’s no better place to reinvigorate Tänak’s campaign than his home event, Rally Estonia, though.
Tänak’s comfort and happiness behind the wheel of the Puma Rally1 could be key to the result an entire country craves, but he has shown in the past that he is willing to overdrive a car if necessary – as he did last season here in a Hyundai.
At the very least Tänak will be targeting a first podium since April, but he’d badly love a win. His championship challenge could really benefit from one, too.
#11 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: DSQ-1st-5th
Best Estonia result: 3rd (2021)
There’s no getting away from it: Estonia is a crucial weekend for Thierry Neuville’s title aspirations.
His disqualification from the last round in Kenya puts Neuville 47 points adrift of series leader Rovanperä, and he’s about to start two high-speed rallies that he’s made a point of saying aren’t events that suit him.
The timing is hardly ideal.
But Neuville is far from a lost cause on a rally like Estonia. Third in 2021 and fourth last year, he’s more than capable of a good result. The issue is, so are all of his title rivals around him.
#4 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 12th-2nd-3rd
Best Estonia result: 6th (2022)
This is what Esapekka Lappi has been waiting for: fast gravel, and the chance to be off the leash and fight for that elusive second WRC win.
Estonia may well be the warm-up before the big one in Jyväskylä two weeks later, as Lappi’s Estonian form is a bit mixed. Although that best result of sixth was undone by a puncture, as he had been running fourth before that last year.
A podium will be the minimum expectation, though. Anything other than finishing as the first Hyundai this weekend would probably have to be registered as a surprise – provided there’s no repeat of that wretched propshaft problem from the Safari!
#18 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 4th-40th-33rd
Best Estonia result: 5th (2022)
He may have been disappointed to miss out on a third straight podium, and he certainly gave his mechanics plenty of work to do, but Safari Rally Kenya was a much-needed return to form for Takamoto Katsuta.
His task now is to translate that onto the faster stuff.
Katsuta has a varied relationship with Estonia, crashing in 2020 and having to retire a year later after co-driver Daniel Barritt sustained an injury. But the positive was he had been third before being forced out.
Above all, Katsuta will be striving to break his manufacturer-nominated jinx. The Japanese has been nominated by Toyota twice this season (Sweden and Portugal) and on both occasions he’s crashed.
He really can’t afford a repeat.
#7 Pierre-Louis Loubet/Nicolas Gilsoul (Ford Puma Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results: 7th-DNF-32nd
Best Estonia result: 7th (2021)
Pierre-Louis Loubet’s luck has to turn at some stage, surely?
Things haven’t been completely flawless from his side, but painfully too often this season the young Frenchman has been beset by either mechanical gremlins or harsh penalties for small errors.
Fast gravel offers a new challenge for Loubet in his first full season in the WRC, but it’s hard to know what to expect from the M-Sport driver.
He wasn’t sensational in Estonia or Finland last year, but nor were any of the Puma Rally1 drivers. Loubet has performed well on these events in lower classes though, so could be a dark horse this weekend.
#3 Teemu Suninen/Mikko Markkula (Hyundai i20 N Rally1)
Last 3 WRC results (WRC2): 2nd-5th-6th
Best Estonia result: 6th (2020 & 2021)
For the first time in over 18 months, Teemu Suninen’s name is on a WRC entry list in the top class – and for the first time in a Rally1 hybrid car.
Given the nod to step up from Hyundai’s Rally2 machine in WRC2, Suninen is on the back foot in terms of experience but very much on the front foot in terms of hunger.
And form. His results may not necessarily suggest it, but the Finn has been performing impeccably in a rather competitive WRC2 field of late.
Knowing what to expect from Suninen in Estonia is tricky – it likely all depends on how quickly he can adapt to the quirks of driving a Rally1 car.
But as he’s been keen to point out, he’s rarely if ever been beaten by a team-mate in Estonia or Finland. So by that reckoning he should be in for a big result this week!
