Oliver Solberg led Rally Estonia throughout the entirety of Friday, carrying a 12.4-second advantage into Saturday.
Immediately winning his very first stage in the World Rally Championship on Friday’s opener, Solberg kept up that same momentum all-day long – picking up two further scratch times across the seven-stage leg.
Making use of an advantageous road position, the Toyota Rally1 debutant was in love with his GR Yaris and it showed – particularly on the final Elva town stage where he produced a spectacular, sideways show.
“Today has been the day of my life,” said Solberg.
“And to be leading the rally, to have won a few stages and have this amazing feeling in the car, I wanted to drift a bit and have some fun. This day has been all about fun – it’s just been the best day of my life.”
While Solberg has broken slightly clear at the head of the field, gaps were much tighter behind.
Home hero Ott Tänak is second overnight, but has just 1.8s in hand over Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville who was particularly strong in the afternoon.
The same could not necessarily be said of Kalle Rovanperä however, who is yet to win a stage this weekend on a rally he has won on each of his previous three visits.
The Finn is fourth overnight, 5.9s down on Neuville and 20.1s off the lead.
“One more day of struggle like every day this year,” Rovanperä surmised. “Hopefully a bit better starting place can help tomorrow, but I think it’s just going to be chin to the chest towards the next disappointment like always.”
Adrien Fourmaux came alive in the afternoon after a substantial setup change at midday service, winning the first pass of Kambja (SS6) and ending the leg in fifth – albeit just 0.2s clear of Takamoto Katsuta.
The Toyota driver wasn’t pleased with his day though, which was beset by understeer problems and a brief intercom issue.
Evans is at risk of losing his championship lead if things remain as they are
World championship leader Elfyn Evans suffered with road cleaning particularly in the afternoon, but was equally honest that he hadn’t been fast enough behind the wheel either.
He’s seventh overnight, 11.4s shy of sixth and 41.4s down on his team-mate Solberg’s lead.
Evans confessed: “It’s been a pretty miserable day out there in terms of time, so we need to find something for tomorrow.”
Sami Pajari was restricted by a sticky handbrake mechanism in the morning which was rectified for the final three stages, but by then the damage had already been done.
The Finn is eighth ahead of the three M-Sport Fords; the Puma charge led by Mãrtiņš Sesks who trails Pajari by only 6.3s.
Josh McErlean is in the final points-scoring place in 10th.
Robert Virves leads WRC2 by an impressive 35.3s over fellow Estonian Georg Linnamäe.
