Oliver Solberg is one step closer to a maiden World Rally Championship victory, leading Rally Estonia by 21.1 seconds with just one day to go.
Solberg started Saturday with a 12.5s advantage over Ott Tänak, but with Tänak now in a more equal road position, the question was whether the Toyota Rally1 debutant could maintain his strong Friday form.
A mistake from Tänak through a chicane on the day’s first of nine tests hurt his chances, but Solberg was awesome anyway.
Fastest on four of the day’s stages, the Swede managed things perfectly out front while Tänak instead concerned himself with keeping team-mate Thierry Neuville behind.
The two Hyundais swapped positions overall for six consecutive stages before Tänak eventually established an overnight advantage of 4.0s.
However the home hero was far from happy with life aboard his Hyundai, as Solberg – who confessed he felt the “tension” with two world champions hunting him down – escaped out front.
Tänak wanted to chase Solberg but instead had to defend from his team-mate
Kalle Rovanperä won every single stage of Saturday in Estonia the last time the WRC visited, but has yet to win a test all weekend in 2025.
He’s a lonely fourth in a Hyundai sandwich – 26.5s behind Neuville but 16.6s clear of Adrien Fourmaux who steadily pulled away from Takamoto Katsuta behind him.
However an elusive Katsuta – who even drove away from a stage-end without answering a question – was battling “something weird” with his Toyota in the afternoon loop.
He’s still 13.6s ahead of a disappointed Elfyn Evans though, who failed to make any advances up the leaderboard once freed of road sweeping duties.
Sami Pajari flew under the radar in eighth while Mãrtiņš Sesks pulled over a minute clear of his M-Sport team-mate Josh McErlean. The Irishman is 10th, 34.9s ahead of the other Puma driven by Saturday road-cleaner Grégoire Munster.
Robert Virves’ WRC2 lead has been clipped by rival Georg Linnamäe, but the Estonian continues to head the category by a healthy 26.5s ahead of Sunday’s trio of stages.
