Onto the final day then of this rally and with Oliver and co-driver Elliott leading by almost twenty-two seconds would they be able to hold this gap on the final day? With only three stages remaining and two of them run twice could the Hyundai crews behind pass the Toyota crew. Greg and Louis would open the road again, courtesy of being the last top-class car.
First up then was SS18 Hellenurme – 11.79 km a new and single run stage. The predicted rain for the final day had arrived as well. What would this mean for the later crews as invariably when gravel roads get wet and perhaps also have standing water and puddles on the line the road and stage gets slower. Elfyn closed on Takamoto as he took six seconds from his teammate, the gap now just 5.2 seconds between them. However, the rain did not fall on the whole stage, just certain parts and as the top crews made their way through the sun was out again. Ultimately Oliver set the pace from Ott, whilst Kalle found some pace on the wet stage to set the third best time. Thierry gained a ten second penalty for a jump start, thus giving Ott a gap over his teammate.
Next was SS19 Kääriku 1 – 24.20 km and Oliver was again fastest from Kalle and Ott third. There was a change further back as Elfyn passed his teammate Takamoto for sixth after setting the same time as Thierry. Takamoto was 5.7 slower than Elfyn who now had a small advantage of half a second.
Now to the final stage then, SS20 Kääriku 2[Power Stage] – 24.20 km and Kalle set the pace which the top three could not beat. Ott and Oliver were second and third fastest, whilst Thierry and Elfyn completed the points scorers in the power stage. Oliver and Elliott had secured a dream result though and one that will go down in the history books. They took the lead on Friday morning and won nine stages, their first at the top of this sport. They were also never out of the top three either apart from stage one and stage eleven.
Let’s take a look at the final finishing positions and hear from the drivers.
Final Overall Classification – Rally Estonia
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Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Oliver Solberg
“It’s been the most amazing weekend. I’m feeling so overwhelmingly happy, after so many years of dreaming and working for this moment. I want to say a big thank you to Toyota for giving me this opportunity and the chance to prove myself and have fun driving this amazing car. Thank you to the test team who helped me get so comfortable. I also never thought I’d get to celebrate on a podium with Juha, who has been a hero of mine since I was a kid and one I’ve been looking up to together with my father. Now this weekend he has been supporting me so well, keeping me calm and telling me what to do. I’ve never had such a good time in my life, so thank you.”
“For the rally itself, Elliott and me were just in our bubble. We were doing our thing and driving our own event. I could feel in the car everything was good and working well, but I didn’t know what this meant for the times. When we won the first stage on Friday, that was so special, but then we had to focus completely again and drive the next one and the next one. We kept doing that, we didn’t get distracted. We kept driving and then we won!
“I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved,” said Elliott. “Like Oliver said, we did our thing. We didn’t get distracted by anything. From the test, through the recce and all the way through the rally, we were keeping our heads down and doing our job. It’s a very special feeling, what a day and what a rally. Again, I would like to thank everybody at Toyota who made this happen and, of course, Oliver!”
Kalle Rovanperä
“We kept pushing this weekend and trying everything we can, and at least we could take full points from the Power Stage. Overall though it’s clear that I don’t currently have the pace we want on gravel with this year’s package. There are no excuses, and we will keep working on it with the team, keep pushing and trying to find something more for Rally Finland, which we will look forward to like every year.”
Elfyn Evans
“It’s been a tough weekend. Of course, our road position did hamper us a bit on Friday, but I also think we didn’t have the speed to challenge like we wanted to. We tried our best today and scored a few extra points, but we can’t be too satisfied at the end of the weekend. I’m looking forward to Rally Finland like always and we’ll keep working together with the team to find a bit more speed there.”
Sami Pajari
“It’s been a tricky rally. Our chances for a good result went with the issue on the first forest stage on Friday, but at least the team could solve the problem and after that I’ve been able to enjoy it and have some good times. The start position was tricky for the last two days so it was more about learning and trying to take all the experience, which is still the main target this year. The feeling was quite good and I’m looking forward to going again at Rally Finland.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“We have been managing something on the car since yesterday and unfortunately today it got worse, so the decision was taken to retire before the Power Stage. Performance-wise we were not so far away here but it was enough in this kind of very fast event that we couldn’t challenge at the front. We will keep working to make another step forward for Rally Finland which is important for myself and the team.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Ott Tänak
“I think we got the best out of this weekend – with or without my mistake on Saturday morning, Oliver was still difficult to beat. I expected a challenging weekend, and I knew it would be tough to get the most out of these Estonian roads. They’re super-fast and have some big jumps, so you need a good balance and a perfect rhythm, and we learned a lot here to take to Finland. I’m happy to be going there in the championship lead, and we will see what it’s like opening the road.”
Photographer: Vincent Thuillier
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Thierry Neuville
“Generally, I am quite happy with how this weekend went for us. From Friday I felt comfortable in the car, but we still managed to find some areas for improvement that we can work on. We got a bit closer to the championship lead, but we still lost a couple of points compared to Ott and Kalle. It wasn’t a perfect weekend, but nevertheless we are happy to be back on the podium. With Finland so close, we are going to work on the areas we need to improve on and see how far we can take it there.”
Adrien Fourmaux
“We had a difficult first stage on Friday morning, and then we found the pace again and kept it all the way through Saturday, so there are a lot of positives to take from that. On the first stage this morning I unfortunately damaged the front of my car, and that meant I lost a lot of balance throughout the rest of the day. It was hard to fight for the Sunday points, but we largely stayed ahead of Evans to play the team game for Ott’s championship.”
M-Sport Ford WRT
Mārtiņš Sesks
“It has been a really nice event; I think for us that’s the biggest take-away from the weekend. It’s been an impressive weekend for our sport and the fans have been amazing, it was really emotional in places to see all the flags. This is the main thing for us, now we go away to focus on Finland.”
Josh McErlean
“It’s been a nice weekend and really cool to experience these roads in the Rally1 car, it’s quite surprising what they can do and how fast you can commit to the roads! You have to really shift your mind so you can be on the pace straight away, but I think we can build on that going into Finland. It’s a proper childhood dream to go to Finland and compete at the top level of the WRC. So let’s go enjoy it and hopefully step up the pace there.”
Grégoire Munster
“At the end of Rally Estonia, it’s not the result we wanted for sure, but this is due to a puncture on Friday and my overshoots in a few places, but I would say that considering we’ve been opening the road we’ve done quite well. Rather than changing the set up too much, we were just trying to drive and gain experience and mileage before going to Finland. We’ve had a lot of fans on these incredibly fast roads, and overall, we’ve really enjoyed the week.”
Romet Jürgenson, fifth WRC2
“The goal for us was to be in the top five here in Estonia and we managed that, so that’s a really big positive. We showed some good pace in some stages, and we got our first two WRC2 stage wins as well, which is a good achievement and was one of the goals for this year too. The speed in general was a bit up and down, so we need to analyse and see where we can improve, but overall, we can be really happy.
A big thanks to the whole M-Sport team and the FIA as well, this is a great opportunity for me, and it’s been one of my dreams to do this rally in WRC2 for a long time.”
Summary
What can I say about the drive by Oliver and Elliott. It was sublime. They’d done one test of two days recently and in their first drive at the top level of the sport for over two years. They made it look like they’ve never been away. They did benefit from a good road position, but they still had to deliver the drive and utterly deserve this brilliant result.
Ott and Martin could not quite catch the Toyota crew. There were moments of pace which gave them stage wins. They just could not get on terms with the pace at the very front. They did deserve the second place and along with the points from they scored they have now moved into the lead of the drivers and co-drivers championships.
Finally, Thierry and Martijn who took third overall showing flashes of pace on a surface which has not always been kind to the Belgians. It’s been a tricky year for them after their successes last year. Still, they are one of the best crews out there and it will be interesting to see how they get on in Finland at the next round.
Here’s the points tables.
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 8
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2025 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After round 8
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Round nine is next held in Rally Finland from the 31st July to 3rd August.
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