After three weekends without it, the World Rally Championship bursts back into life for the first of two high-speed gravel events: Rally Estonia.
Part of the world championship for the fourth year in a row, there could be added incentive to win Estonia this year with Latvia’s impending inclusion in 2024.
With both championship races continuing to heat up, there’s more than just sentiment up for grabs though.
Here’s all the key information you need ahead of round eight:
Entry breakdown
Total 53 crews
8 Rally1 cars
26 Rally2 cars (23 WRC2)
16 Rally3 cars (9 Junior WRC)
Rally1
The big news in the Rally1 class is Teemu Suninen’s first WRC start in a hybrid rally car. The Finn joins Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi in the first of two confirmed top-tier drives with Hyundai.
Toyota will also field a three-car lineup, with Takamoto Katsuta stepping back up to the main manufacturer squad in Sébastien Ogier’s absence, competing alongside Elfyn Evans and championship leader Kalle Rovanperä.
As always, home hero Ott Tänak and Pierre-Louis Loubet represent M-Sport Ford.
WRC2
Yet again, the battle in WRC2 is set to be a corker in Estonia.
Oliver Solberg tops the entry in his Toksport Škoda, fresh from a strong win on the European Rally Championship’s Royal Rally of Scandinavia.
His main opposition is likely team-mate Andreas Mikkelsen, who won on his last appearance in Sardinia, but fellow Toksport driver Sami Pajari is a genuine contender too.
Leaving the Fabia RS Rally2 behind, Emil Lindholm starts his first rally as a Hyundai driver and it will be interesting to see how he acclimatizes to the i20 N Rally2.
There’s plenty of local interest too with Egon Kaur (Škoda), 2022 Junior WRC champion Robert Virves (Ford) and Georg Linnamäe (Hyundai).
Gus Greensmith will compete in Estonia, but not for WRC2 points.
Junior WRC
Estonia is an important chapter in this year’s Junior WRC story as the penultimate round of the season.
So far, William Creighton is in the pound seat for the title with wins in both Sweden and Sardinia – and the pace to win in Croatia as well – but with double points in Greece and stage win points up for grabs, nothing is signed, sealed or delivered.
Laurent Pellier has been knocking on the door of a win all year long, while Grégoire Munster makes a surprise return to the championship having competed in Sweden but not thereafter.
The M-Sport WRC2 driver will use the event as extra seat-time ahead of a return to the Rally2 car in Finland two weeks later.
In WRC3, Roope Korhonen and Toni Herranen will be sure-fire contenders along with the leading JWRC runners.
Itinerary
Twenty-one stages comprise this year’s Rally Estonia which once again begins on Thursday evening with the Tartu superspecial, but this year the spectator stage has been doubled in length from one to two miles.
Friday offers the crews seven stages with a repeated loop of Peipsiääre, Mustvee and Raanitsa extended by the addition of the short Neeruti test in the afternoon.
Saturday is a shorter day but features two more stages than Friday. A regroup splits the first and second passes of Mäeküla and Otepää before a return to service at Raadi.
The afternoon then consists of two attempts at Elva and Kanpei before a return to the Tartu stage to close out the day.
Sunday features just four stages – the brand-new Karaski test and then Kambja which returns to be the powerstage as it was last year.
In total, crews will tackle 186 miles of competitive stages across the four days.
