Pajari won 12 of the 18 total stages including all of Friday's stages, and finished almost 20 seconds ahead of last year's winner, his team mate Oliver Solberg.

French driver Adrien Fourmaux also made the podium, finishing 53.8 seconds behind Pajari for M-Sport Ford, while 2024 world champion Thierry Neuvill (Belgium) was the first Hyundai finisher (+59.7). Veteran driver Sebastien Ogier was fifth for Toyota, while Elfyn Evans, also with the dominant Toyota and chasing his first ever WRC title, placed sixth. Latvian Mārtiņš Sesks finished seventh for M-Sport Ford.

Dreams become reality!

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen secure their maiden WRC win after a brilliant weekend on the roads of Estonia. TAKE. A. BOW #WRC | #DelfiRallyEstonia pic.twitter.com/vfV1rwRrne

— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) July 19, 2026

"It's an amazing feeling. I didn't even realize what we were doing. Thank you to everyone working at Toyota. I'm so happy and grateful. Thanks to my sponsors, family and friends. You supported me even when things were difficult," Pajari said after his victory. "I also want to thank myself. I never gave up and fought until the end again. We knew this win would come, there was never any doubt. Now we've done it," he added.

Meanwhile Virves, who claimed the first WRC2 victory of his career at the race last year, repeated the feat after taking the class lead following the second stage and holding it to the finish. Teemu Suninen snatched second place on the final stage by overtaking fellow Finn Roope Korhonen, finishing 7.6 seconds behind Virves, while Korhonen was a further 1.2 seconds back (+8.8).

Background

Rally Estonia is round nine of the 2026 season and is being held for the 16th time overall, having become a full WRC event in 2020. The event commandeers the roads of South Estonia and the city of Tartu, where the rally headquarters are located. Over 50 crews have entered for the rally, including 11 top-tier Rally1 cars.

Following Ott Tänak's retirement at the end of the 2025 season, there are no Estonians competing in the WRC1 category, but no fewer than eight are taking part in the second-tier WRC2 category at their home race, including last year's WRC2 winner and current sixth-placed driver in the standings, Robert Virves, Romet Jürgenson, Patrick Enok, Egon Kaur and even event organizer Urmo Aava. The WRC Promoter has put up a €50,000 prize fund for the three fastest young Estonian drivers in the Rally Estonia WRC2 classification.

Of the top drivers, Evans was joined by Takamoto Katsuta (Japan) and Ogier (France) as well as Pajari. Neuville, Fourmaux and Esapekka Lappi (Finland) were in the running for Hyundai, and the only other team to race in the Rally1 class, M-Sport Ford, was represented by Irish drivers Jon Armstrong and Josh McErlean, as well as Sesks.

Friday's stages

On Friday's shakedown, Toyota locked out the top five: Evans and Pajari shared fastest time, ahead of Katsuta, Oliver Solberg, and Sebastien Ogier. Neuville and Fourmaux followed for Hyundai. Virves topped his class ahead of Vaher, while Sesks crashed his Ford and Priit Koik rolled his Renault.

On Friday, Pajari dominated to build a 14.7-second lead over Solberg, with Fourmaux, Neuville, Ogier, and Sesks next. Katsuta retired after a puncture, while Sesks and Neuville damaged their cars but continued.

Virves meanwhile said a setup change after Stage 1 improved the car and that the fast roads left little room to gain time, with the focus on avoiding mistakes. Jaspar Vaher (Toyota), making his World Rally Championship debut climbed to fourth in WRC2 and claimed his first stage win despite an early spin. Enok remained seventh ahead of Jürgenson, saying he felt comfortable and confident despite a few small mistakes.

Saturday's stages

After winning all seven special stages on Friday, Pajari made a flying start to Saturday by taking two more stage wins. However, this remarkable streak came to an end on the 10t stage, where his teammate and last year's winner, Swedish-Norwegian Oliver Solberg, claimed his first stage win. Solberg also won the stage just before the midday service break, cutting Pajari's lead to 14.1 seconds.

Fast and furious ‍#WRC | #DelfiRallyEstonia pic.twitter.com/503fN5UAdF

— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) July 18, 2026

Following the break, Pajari regained control, beating Solberg by four seconds on stage 12 and winning the next two stages before 2024 champion Neuville claimed Hyundai's first stage win. Solberg responded by taking the final city stage in Tartu, trimming Pajari's lead to 25 seconds.

Fourmaux, driving for M-Sport Ford, remained third, 52.1 seconds behind Pajari. Neuville followed (+54.0), ahead of Ogier (Toyota; +1:32.8), championship leader Evans (Toyota; +2:02.9), who climbed three places, Sesks (M-Sport Ford; +2:16.3), Lappi (Hyundai; +2:42.0) and Armstrong (M-Sport Ford; +3:03.2).

In WRC2, reigning winner Virves and co-driver Jakko Viilo stayed in the top three all day, claimed four stage wins, retained the class lead and moved into 10th overall (+7:07.2) after McErlean (M-Sport Ford) retired. Virves told ERR he was happy with the result despite struggling to feel comfortable with the car, saying they pushed when conditions allowed but had to be cautious in more difficult sections.

Among the other Estonians, Enok (Škoda) was seventh (+1:41.1), Jürgenson (M-Sport Ford) ninth (+1:57.6) and Nõgene (Toyota) 11th (+2:05.2) in WRC2. Volver (Toyota), competing outside the championship, would rank ahead of Jürgenson among the Rally2 cars (+1:49.7). Vaher showed strong pace before crashing out from fourth in WRC2.

Sunday's stages

Sunday's itinerary consisted of just two runs through the 24.39-kilometre Kääriku stage, with the first pass starting at 11:05 a.m.

Solberg won both of them, but Pajari had done enough already that his fifth and sixth stage places allowed him to maintain the lead and with it the race win.

Virves, who turned 26 earlier this month, and Škoda co-driver and fellow Estonian Jakko Viilo moved into the lead of their home rally after the second stage and never relinquished it, taking a 10.1-second advantage over their closest rivals into Sunday's stages.

No place like home!

Robert Virves and Jakko Viilo defend their WRC2 crown at Delfi Rally Estonia with another impressive performance. #WRC | #DelfiRallyEstonia pic.twitter.com/y1HJfqG9NR

— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) July 19, 2026

While Korhonen and Suninen managed to reduce the gap on the penultimate stage, the Estonian finished confidently to secure back-to-back Rally Estonia victories. He also took the €25,000 prize awarded to the fastest Estonian driver.

It's crazy, I don't even know where to start," said the exhausted Virves post-race. "This was the hardest rally of my career. It was flat out from start to finish. I don't feel very well – it was one huge challenge. There was a lot of pressure, and it was my daughter's first rally, so I had to win. A huge thank you to the team for another flawless rally, and thanks to all our supporters," he added.

Suninen finished second, Korhonen third in WRC2. Three more Estonians also finished in the top 10: Enok (Škoda; +2:02.4) was sixth,Jürgenson (M-Sport Ford; +2:13.9) eighth and Nõgene (Toyota; +2:30.9) ninth. Volver (Toyota) did not score WRC championship points but finished seventh among the Rally2 cars.

Virves has also scored points this season in Kenya and Greece, where he likewise won the WRC2 class. The Estonian has collected 75 points from three rallies and climbed to second place in the championship standings.

WRC standings after round nine

The top tier WRC drivers' table now looks like this, with X rounds to go:

1. Elfyn Evans 177 points
2. Takamoto Katsuta 152 points 
3. Sami Pajari 144 points 
4. Sebastien Ogier 139  points 
5. Oliver Solberg 130 points 
6. Thierry Neuville 111 points 
7. Adrien Fourmaux 111 points 
8. Esapekka Lappi 25 points 

The next race is in neighboring Finland, at the end of July/start of August. Four more rounds follow in the season.

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