Sami Pajari claims maiden victory in Rally Estonia

Sami Pajari claims maiden victory in Rally Estonia

19th July 2026 0 By Kamron Kent

Toyota’s Sami Pajari has claimed his maiden victory in the World Rally Championship as the young Finnish driver takes victory at Rally Estonia.

Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree // Red Bull Content Pool

Toyota’s Pajari has taken victory on Estonian gravel now finally stands as a rally winner inside the WRC after the Finnish driver completed a dominant weekend.

On Friday, the winner completed a clean sweep of stage wins, leaving the opening day 14 seconds ahead of his closest rival.

This form continued into the opening two stages of Saturday, before the likes of Toyota’s Oliver Solberg and Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville claimed their own stage victories across the weekend.

Pajari entered the last day of the weekend 25 seconds ahead of his closest rival and teammate, Solberg, with only two stages left to run on Sunday. Both stages were identical, with the first pass of Kääriku serving as the dress rehearsal of the Wolf Power Stage.

However, on the final pass of the day, Pajari took his foot off the accelerator, not taking too much risk and allowing him to cruise to the end, finishing sixth and out of the power stage points, 5.1 seconds off Solberg’s time.

Regardless, Estonia has played witness once more to another WRC maiden winner in two consecutive seasons, in Pajari, who follows in the footsteps of Solberg to claim his first WRC rally at the event.

Sami Pajari inches closer to maiden win in WRC Rally Estonia

The 2025 winner finished the event as runner-up, cutting the deficit down to 19.5 seconds over the two stages. Whilst the win was not the result for Solberg, the Swede still finished the event at the top of Super Sunday’s timings.

It means Solberg will take home maximum points from both Sunday’s overall classification and the power stage.

Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux will round out the podium, in third place, 53.8 seconds adrift of Pajari after sealing second place from his teammate, Thierry Neuville, who stood only 1.9 seconds off the back of the Frenchman.

In terms of the championship contenders, Elfyn Evans finished the event in sixth overall, and he will now hold a 25-point lead over his teammate Takamoto Katsuta. Pajari, upon his victory and three points from Super Sunday, will now jump into third, overtaking the nine-time world champion Sebastien Ogier.

For the manufacturers championship, Toyota remains the championship leader, cruising out front with 464 points to their name and 156 ahead of their closest championship rivals, Hyundai (308pts).

Sami Pajari ‘under control’ after dominating start to Rally Estonia

Next up is the iconic Rally Finland, which will get underway at the end of the month, starting on July 30.

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Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

CategoryNews Rallying WRC

About the author

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

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