Rally Estonia 2023 - Best of

Rally Estonia 2023 was once again part of the WRC in 2023, starting the second half of the season as the first of two high-speed gravel events with Rally Finland coming up just two weeks later. Home hero Ott Tänak had the worst possible start into the weekend, engine trouble in Shakedown forced the M-Sport team to change the engine aboard the Ford Puma Rally1, resulting in a five minute time penalty before the weekend even began. As the rally got underway, Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja showed right away what could have been possible with four out of four stage wins by Friday midday service. But it was Kalle Rovanperä und Jonne Halttunen (Toyota Yaris Rally1) who led at the end of the first leg despite opening the road. Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 Rally1) lay only three seconds behind, finding a lot more confidence on the fast gravel roads than in recent years thanks to using some of his teammate Esapekka Lappi’s setup. Said team mate lay in third position just 1,9 seconds ahead of Toyota’s Elfyn Evans. On Saturday, Kalle Rovanperä did the unthinkable by winning all of the nine stages the day had to offer without being deterred by the many harsh and big jumps some drivers complained about. He extended his lead over Neuville to almost 35. And Rovanperä continued this streak into Sunday, winning all stages including the Powerstage taking home a perfect 30 points from Estonia. With thirteen stage wins in a row he just fell short Sebastien Loeb’s record of most stage wins in a row in modern WRC. He won 14 stages in a row in Rally Cyprus 2005. Thierry Neuville secured second position ahead of teammates Esapekka Lappi / Janni Ferm. The third Hyundai driver, Teemu Suninen with codriver Millo Markkula did a great job in his first ever event with a Rally1 car, finishing fifth behind Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin. Pierre-Louis Loubet managed to overtake Takamoto Katsuta in the final stage to finish sixth as best of the Fords while teammate Tänak salvaged eights place as the last of the Rally1 cars. In WRC2 Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) lead early on before damaging the suspension on the fifth special stage, thus handing the lead over to their Toksport teammates Andreas Mikkelsen and Torstein Eriksen. The pair managed to fend off the charging Sami Pajari and Enni Malkönen till the finish with just 9,7 seconds advantage. Emil Lindholm and Reeta Hämäläinen finished third on their first event in a Hyundai. Roope Korhonen and Anssi Viinikka won WRC3 and were fastest of the Ford Fiesta Rally3s while the JWRC honours went to Grégoire Munster and Louis Louka. Rally Estonia 2023 Rallye Estland 2023 Viron MM-ralli 2023 Rajd Estonii 2023 Reli Estonia 2023 रैली एस्टोनिया 2023 ラリー・エストニア 2023 2023 年爱沙尼亚拉力赛 Ралли Эстония 2023 #wrc #rally #rallye