Andreas Mikkelsen came out on top of a four-way WRC2 lead battle on the first leg of Rally Estonia, fending off the challenge from Hyundai’s Teemu Suninen as others hit trouble.
Despite their experience as top-line factory drivers, both Mikkelsen and Suninen found themselves battling to keep Emil Lindholm – Mikkelsen’s team-mate in the Toksport lineup – and Egon Kaur at bay.
Kaur, the only driver to have competed in every edition of Rally Estonia since its formation in 2010, went from 11th to second on Friday’s opening test, then usurped Mikkelsen for the lead on stage three.
But from Mustvee onward his day began to fall apart. Kaur ripped the front bumper and splitter off his Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, hampering his pace on the next two stages before midday service offered a fix for his damaged car.
He’d remained in the hunt, only 11.5 seconds off the top spot heading to service, but his rally became undone with two punctures in two stages. With only one spare in the trunk, he retired on the road section after the second pass of Raanitsa.
After Kaur’s earlier woes, Lindholm had picked up the baton and battled Mikkelsen hard for the lead. Lindholm held the top spot aside from a brief demotion to second when his rival Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo runner dominated the second pass of Peipsiääre.
But just as Kaur had parked up from running out of spare tires, Lindholm suffered a puncture at the same time, dropping almost a minute and promoting Mikkelsen back to the lead.
All the while Suninen had been lurking close behind, never falling more than 9.6s behind the leader.
A stage win on Raanitsa pulled Suninen to only 1.9s behind Mikkelsen, setting up a final stage showdown to decide who’d carry the overnight lead into Saturday’s stages.
The momentum swung firmly back towards Mikkelsen though, who was 10.2s faster than the former M-Sport driver and takes a 12.1s advantage back to the service park for tomorrow.
Despite the push to solidify his lead, Mikkelsen insisted he’d been playing the percentage game, rather than risking it all for the top spot.
“I think we have been driving clever, like the previous rallies,” said Mikkelsen.
“First when we felt comfortable, and then we’ve played it a bit safe when the risk was high and punctures, tires going off the rim.”
There was a similar sentiment from Suninen, who had perhaps backed off just a little too much on the final test amid the treacherous conditions that had caught out several Rally1 crews.
“It’s been pretty good. Quite clean day,” he surmised. “On the second pass we were a bit careful in the big ruts and I think that was a bit clever to avoid punctures. But the last stage was super tricky.”
Lindholm’s tire woe promoted Marco Bulacia to the final podium position, actually increasing his gap to fourth place on the final test to 18.7s by winning the stage ahead of Mikkelsen.
M-Sport’s WRC2 works entry had led after the Thursday superspecial but Jari Huttunen wasn’t able to keep the leaders at bay, falling all the way to ninth but recovering to fifth as others ran into issues.
Miko Marczyk was the first midfielder to fall, crashing into a tree on Mustvee and retiring from sixth.
Hayden Paddon, making a long-awaited world championship return after almost three years away, had struggled with his Hyundai i20 N Rally2 and fell behind Huttunen to eighth.
But his rally was over by the first service zone, as he returned a positive result on a COVID-19 test at said service and was required to stop.
WRC2 championship leader Kajetan Kajetanowicz, coming off the back of class victory at Safari Rally Kenya, has struggled for pace so far.
He too was caught and passed by the recovering Huttunen during the day and is down in sixth in class, a result that would allow Mikkelsen to take the championship lead with victory – depending on powerstage bonus points.
