Sami Pajari led Rally Estonia from start to finish, winning 12 of 18 stages and beating Oliver Solberg by 19.5 seconds for his maiden WRC victory.
Pajari seals his breakthrough
Sami Pajari earned his first World Rally Championship victory with a controlled drive at Rally Estonia, leading from start to finish in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1.
Co-driven by fellow Finn Marko Salminen, the 24-year-old completed the high-speed gravel event based in Tartu in 2hr 31min 16.5sec. He beat Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson in another Toyota by 19.5sec, while Hyundai pair Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria finished third, 53.8sec behind the winner.
Pajari became the 83rd different driver to win a WRC round and the 17th Finn to claim an outright championship victory. The result marked Finland’s 199th WRC win, secured immediately before the series travels to his home round.
Pajari won 12 of the rally’s 18 stages, including nine straight, and stayed in charge throughout the new 50-hour format. Estonia’s roads require precision and commitment at sustained speed. He set the standard and never gave up the lead.
“It’s something so amazing, maybe I didn’t really realise what I’ve just done,” Pajari said.
How Pajari stayed in control
Pajari paired outright speed with a firm response whenever Solberg increased the pressure. The defending Estonia winner became his nearest challenger and won two stages on Saturday morning, cutting the deficit to 14.1sec.
The fight threatened to close up there. Pajari responded in the afternoon, rebuilt his cushion and showed that his early pace would last. His advantage over Solberg had grown to 25.0sec by the start of Sunday’s two-stage final leg.
Solberg went 0.4sec quicker on SS17, but Pajari remained comfortably ahead before the repeat run through the 24.39-kilometre Kääriku stage. The final test doubled as the Power Stage. Solberg was faster again, although Pajari preserved enough of his lead to win the rally.
The winner rarely looked unsettled. Leading a WRC event from the opening stage creates its own pressure, especially for a driver chasing his maiden victory, but Pajari kept the occasion and Solberg’s occasional gains from changing his approach.
He collected 28 points, with 25 for the overall victory and three bonus points.
Toyota claims one-two as Fourmaux takes third
Solberg completed a Toyota one-two, adding another major result after his Rallye Monte-Carlo victory at the beginning of the season. He could not consistently find the feeling needed to challenge Pajari for the win, but his final-day speed earned maximum bonus points. Solberg departed Estonia with 27 points after winning Super Sunday and the Power Stage.
Second place gave Solberg his third podium of the campaign and a valuable recovery following crashes in four of the previous five rounds.
Fourmaux took the final podium position in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1. He ended the rally 34.3sec behind Solberg and 5.9sec ahead of team-mate Thierry Neuville in fourth. Sébastien Ogier placed fifth in another Toyota, 1min 32.9sec behind Pajari.
Championship leader Elfyn Evans came home sixth, 2min 01.0sec behind the winning time. Mārtiņš Sesks finished seventh after receiving a 20-second penalty, followed by Esapekka Lappi in eighth and Josh Armstrong in ninth.
Robert Virves rounded out the top 10 in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2, finishing 8min 33.1sec behind Pajari as the highest-placed Rally2 competitor in the overall classification.
Victory lifts Pajari into title contention
Pajari added 28 points in Estonia to his previous season tally of 116, moving him to third in the provisional championship standings. He is now 33 points behind Toyota team-mate Evans.
The victory strengthened a season already filled with regular front-running finishes. Pajari has reached the podium six times in 2026, with Estonia providing the final step from contender to rally winner.
It also extended the season’s wide spread of winners. Pajari became the ninth different victor through the first nine rounds of the 14-event championship. He was the second driver to score a maiden WRC win in 2026 after Takamoto Katsuta, and the third consecutive driver to earn a first WRC victory in Estonia, following Kalle Rovanperä in 2021 and Solberg in 2025.
Toyota’s one-two showed the GR Yaris Rally1’s pace on Estonia’s fast gravel stages. Pajari, Solberg, Ogier and Evans all finished among the top six, giving the manufacturer a dominant win and four cars near the front.
Finland follows immediately
The championship heads next to Rally Finland, round 10 of 14, from 30 July to 2 August. Its similarly quick gravel roads give Pajari an immediate chance to carry his Estonia pace into his home event.
Consecutive wins would bring added expectations, but Pajari’s Tartu performance was clear. He did not benefit from attrition or a late mistake from a rival. He took the lead, won two-thirds of the stages and responded when his advantage was reduced.
Estonia moved Pajari to within 33 points of Evans and put him into the 2026 title fight with five rounds left.
