The story of Saturday was the crowdfunded hometown hero, Robert Virves, who consistently posted top-three stage times with minimal mistakes to lead from stage four into the overnight service.
Sami Pajari lived up to his Flying Finn moniker on the opening stage, sending his EcoBoost-powered Fiesta Rally4 to victory by a clear second over Tom Kristensson. The Swede struck back the following morning taking the first stage win of the day as well as the rally lead. It was not to last though, as Kristensson’s rally ended on the next stage with a crankshaft failure following a heavy landing.
Romanian Raul Badiu would join Kristensson in retiring for the day in the first loop, damaging his radiator on stage three punting a hay bale across the stage. Pontus Lonnstrom’s early stage times indicated he would be in contention for a podium however his day was cut short, stopping in stage four due to a broken driveshaft. Italian driver, Fabio Andolfi, also retired after stage three.
Stage three caught out Ken Torn, hitting a rock, collecting a puncture and breaking his power steering. He went on to deliver a hat-trick of stage wins by the end of the loop, reducing his deficit from the leader to just 1.3 seconds. The drama wasn’t over for Torn, on stage seven he sustained a puncture with another on the following stage while only carrying one spare ruling the Estonian out for the remainder of the day.
With his competitors running into trouble, speedy Latvian Martins Sesks grabbed his first stage win point of the rally and the lead as an added bonus on stage three. He would lose ground to Virves on the following stages, dropping to second position but also struck back on the second pass of Prangli with a stage win.
Pajari, who bent his steering arm in the first loop and initially dropped to fourth, regrouped to take four stage wins in a row to close down on rally leader Robert Virves to set up a nail biting finish to Rally Estonia on Sunday.
Maciej Woda, Junior WRC Team Director: « Today has been an absolute rollercoaster for nearly all of our competitors in FIA Junior WRC with exciting battles and some really great surprises. The fight at the front today was still exciting though, we knew Robert Virves was quick heading to Tartu but I think the enthusiastic Estonian fans have really filled him with energy. It was a similar story for Ken Torn too and it was quite nail-biting to watch the splits come in for the these two Estonians fighting it out with Sami Pajari and Martins Sesks. Unfortunately we have seen some retirements and I am very sorry to see Pontus, Tom, Fabio and Raul retiring so early. The same is true for Ken but it was good to see him put in a strong fight for seven stages. I expected to see all five of these very talented drivers fighting for the lead but sometimes this is the way it goes in rallying. We have over 80 kilometres of stages remaining tomorrow and as we have seen today, anything can happen! »
Robert Virves, FIA Junior WRC Rally Leader: « I am so happy to be leading the first ever FIA Junior WRC round on Rally Estonia and I am very proud. Today has been difficult and the event format is very different to what I am used to which has been a challenge but it is also a great learning experience. The Fiesta Rally4 is a really nice car and was great to get on the pace with straight away. Me and Sander have worked very hard for this and I really want to thank all of my supporters for getting me to this point, we have one more day left so let’s keep going. »
RALLY ESTONIA CLASSIFICATION 1. Robert Virves / Sander Pruul 1:28:47.2 2. Martins Sesks / Renars Francis +11.2 3. Sami Pajari / Marko Salminen +27.4 4. Ruairi Bell / Matt Edwards +2:45.5 5. Fabrizio Zaldivar / Fernando Mussano +3:54.1 6. Marco Pollara / Maurizio Messina +4:28.3 7. Enrico Oldrati / Elia de Guio +6:57.5 8. Ken Torn / Kauri Pannas +29:57.9 9. Pontus Lonnstrom / Stefan Gustavsson +1:20:01.0 10. Raul Badiu / Gabriel Lazar +1:21:35.3
RETIRED:
Tom Kristensson / Joakim Sjöberg Fabio Andolfi / Stefano Savoia
Press release FIA Junior WRC
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