Sami Pajari's Perfect Day in Estonia: 7 Stage Wins in 7 Sections

Toyota's 24-year-old driver, Sami Pajari, is chasing his first World Rally Championship victory, and his performance today showed no signs of him still gaining experience – seven first-place finishes in all seven sections of Friday's program at Rally Estonia, Round 9 of the WRC season.

After setting the fastest times in the first three stages earlier in the day, Pajari left the tire change zone in Tehvandi with a 4.1-second lead.

The Finn continued to extend this lead throughout the rest of the day, winning three more gravel stages before concluding the day with another best time in the asphalt super special stage in Elva.

He became the first driver since Kalle Rovanperä at Rally Islas Canarias last season to win all stages on the opening day of a rally.

Pajari's only significant concern came in the fifth special stage when he reported making "a small mistake in one corner." However, his pace was so high that the moment had no lasting consequences.

Oliver Solberg, Pajari's Toyota teammate who secured his first World Rally Championship victory on the gravel tracks of Estonia 12 months ago, finished the day in second place, 14.7 seconds behind the Finn and just 1.8 seconds ahead of third-placed Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai). While Solberg complained about a lack of feel for the car's behavior during "a difficult and very frustrating day," Fourmaux impressed with his performance throughout the entire first leg.

After a moment during a jump in the second stage, where Fourmaux landed off-road, the Frenchman had no further issues and recorded a series of top-three times to overtake his teammate Thierry Neuville by 7.5 seconds.

Neuville, the 2024 world champion, repeatedly mentioned his car's lack of balance throughout the day but finished with a 33.3-second lead over Sébastien Ogier, who is competing in Estonia for the first time since 2021.

Takamoto Katsuta was sixth overall when he suffered a double blow in the sixth stage. Besides a damaged front-left tire, which cost him almost a minute, the Japanese driver now faces the prospect of opening the road on Saturday, the longest day of the rally, after retiring before the seventh stage.

Having fallen behind Esapekka Lappi in the third special stage, Elfyn Evans reclaimed his lead over his Finnish rival by being 0.6 seconds faster in the fifth section. However, the championship leader, who started first on the track, had no answer to Lappi's pace in the sixth stage and finished the day in ninth position. M-Sport driver Joshua McErlean is eighth, just 0.1 seconds behind Lappi.

Jon Armstrong holds tenth place after losing 30 seconds due to a punctured front-left tire in the very first stage, caused by a heavy landing after a jump.

Photo: Rally Estonia profile on x.com