Sami Pajari dominated the opening day of Rally Estonia, winning all seven of the day’s stages to lead by 14.7 seconds.
With five podiums from eight starts so far in the 2026 World Rally Championship, the only result Pajari’s been missing was an elusive first victory.
After setting the equal-fastest time with Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans on Friday morning’s shakedown test, Pajari carried that momentum into the competitive event which began in the afternoon.
Fastest on all six of the gravel forest tests, Pajari even managed to win the asphalt Elva linn superspecial that ended the day – completing a perfect day aboard his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.
“We have enjoyed it a lot,” Pajari said. “Still, it’s only the first day of this event so it’s too soon to say anything more, but so far it’s been great and we’ve enjoyed it a lot. I hope we can carry on with the same flow for the next two days.”
Last year’s Rally Estonia winner Oliver Solberg ends Friday as Pajari’s closest challenger, but unable to match his team-mate’s pace.
Instead, he’s had to fend off Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux who is just 1.8s adrift after seven stages.
Solberg hasn't had the speed he hoped for, but is still second overall
“It’s been a difficult day, that’s for sure,” confessed Solberg. “Very disappointing. We need to try to get a better feeling for tomorrow and improve.”
Fourmaux added: “It’s a good fight, we’ll see tomorrow. Third tonight is positive, so we can be pleased.”
Thierry Neuville completed the day in fourth spot, 7.5s behind team-mate Fourmaux, with world champion Sébastien Ogier 9.3s further behind in fifth.
Both had clean Fridays, although Neuville was unhappy by a lack of lateral grip at his disposal from his Hyundai.
“I expected more,” Neuville rued. “The car felt honestly brilliant in testing but today I couldn’t find back any of that. I have massive understeer. We’re going to change some stuff tomorrow and see.”
Takamoto Katsuta had been sixth behind Ogier, but a front-left delamination on SS6 cost him over a minute and dropped him five spots to 11th.
He then retired on the road section before SS7, incurring a 10-minute time penalty and being lumbered with road cleaning for Saturday’s nine stages.
Ogier sympathized: “I feel for him, he deserved better than that.”
Mãrtiņš Sesks instead ended the day in sixth spot, climbing four places on the leg’s penultimate stage with an equal third-fastest time.
A collision with an anti-cut device on shakedown caused damage that meant Sesks started the event with a 20s penalty for leaving service two minutes late. Without that he’d have been 24.7s off the lead and ahead of Ogier.
“This day was good, it was a great push, but thanks to the team about the day,” he said. “We are losing as a team and winning as a team. If we can keep pace like this tomorrow, I think it would be great.”
Sixth to ninth places are, however, split by just 5.7s, with Hyundai’s returning Esapekka Lappi – frustrated by his pace – seventh and Sesks’ M-Sport team-mate Josh McErlean eighth.
Championship leader Elfyn Evans ended the day in ninth, 49.8s off the lead having spent the leg cleaning the road for his rivals.
Katsuta’s late drama spared Jon Armstrong the arduous task of cleaning Saturday’s stages, but the M-Sport man’s day was a case of what might have been after an awkward landing over an SS1 jump punctured his front-left and rearranged the front-left fender of his Puma.
He ended Friday 14.5s behind ninth-placed Evans.
“I guess the pace has been quite good, so from that side we have to be happy,” Armstrong reflected. “It’s a shame what happened on the first stage, it made things quite tricky for the rest of the event but it’s been great to drive this car on these roads – some of the best we have on the calendar.”
Robert Virves leads a relentless WRC2 battle at his home event, heading title rival Teemu Suninen by just 2.5s.
Roope Korhonen is another 2.5s in third ahead of Toyota junior Jaspar Vaher and Emil Lindholm who ended the day fifth, 7.8s off the lead.
