Sami Pajari continues to lead Rally Estonia, but second-placed Oliver Solberg ended his dominant stage-winning streak on Saturday morning.
Pajari won all seven of the opening day’s stages on Friday, and duly went quickest again on the first pass of both Peipsiääre and Mustvee on Saturday to extend his lead to 17.6 seconds.
Solberg responded on SS10 Peipsiääre 2 however, stealing 3.3s back from his Toyota team-mate to close to 14.3s behind and halt Pajari’s domination.
The two Toyotas were far closer on Mustvee 2, but Solberg was again faster by 0.2s.
“It’s getting better and better, the car is not too bad now,” said Solberg. “Being here is the main thing, that’s been the main thing all weekend, which is probably why I don’t have that killer speed, but the feeling is getting better so that’s the main thing.”
Pajari added: “0.2 on this stage is nothing really, but it seems like he is building up the pace somehow. I still need to focus on my thing. The feeling is still there, so there is no dramas really, so I just need to keep pushing. There are still many kilometers to go.”
Adrien Fourmaux remains third overall, but has fallen into the clutches of Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville rather than pressuring Solberg ahead.
Fourmaux started Saturday just 1.8s behind Solberg but heads back to service with a 24.9s deficit, not helped by clipping an anti-cut device on SS10 and damaging the front-right bodywork of his Hyundai, nor a slow puncture towards the end of SS11.
Neuville is now 5.6s shy of Fourmaux and therefore the podium, having consistently driven away from fifth-placed Sébastien Ogier who’s 19.8s behind, and over a minute off Pajari’s lead.
Championship leader Elfyn Evans climbed from ninth to sixth over the course of Saturday morning, overhauling Mãrtiņš Sesks – who slashed a tire on SS9 – Esapekka Lappi and Josh McErlean who eventually retired with an exhaust manifold issue.
The M-Sport driver stopped for 10 minutes on the day’s first test, successfully completed the next but then retired on the road section prior to SS10.
Team-mate Jon Armstrong is therefore up to ninth place with WRC2 leader Robert Virves completing the top-10.
Takamoto Katsuta restarted after retiring before Friday’s final stage with two damaged tiers and set about experimenting with setups ahead of Rally Finland in two weeks.
