Rally Estonia has started in style with a revamped ‘Tartu’ super special which has delighted the thousands of fans present. Although the public has swept home and has shown all its support for Ott Tänak, the truth is that the first protagonist of the event is Irish. Craig Breen has achieved the scratch in SS1 and sleeps as the first leader of the Estonian Rally, which also allows M-Sport to rear its head after some difficult rallies for the Cumbrian coach. Of course, the differences between the WRC leaders have been minimal.
Without much crumb at a competitive level and corrected the errors of the super special that were seen in previous editions, the show has been clean and the results adjusted. Stages with more importance than it might seem at first for some pilots, like the case of Takamoto Katsuta. The Japanese has been able to start the rally normally after his accident in shakedown, but that does not mean that the Toyota driver does not need gain confidence to have a competitive pace for the rest of the event.
In this stage, Craig Breen set the standard with a time of 1:38.7, a record that helped him beat leader Kalle Rovanperä by a tenth. Two tenths behind the M-Sport driver Elfyn Evans was placed in third position, while Thierry Neuville finished three tenths with the best Hyundai i20 N Rally1. Local hero Ott Tänak had to settle for fifth placealthough the loss of time was minimal if one takes into account that the Estonian was left in gear for a good part of the route.
Esapekka Lappi and Takamoto Katsuta finished behind the Estonian’s back, with Gus Greensmith, Oliver Solberg and Pierre-Louis Loubet completing the ‘top 10’, proving once again that this type of stage requires a lot of experience and technique to find that extra tenth that allows you to be among the best. Already out of the top ten positions, Jari Huttunen has achieved the scratch to be the first leader of the WRC2 category after beating Kajetan Kajetanowicz by half a second. It is the first scratch of the Ford Fiesta Rally2 Evo.
In general, all the strong riders in the championship can sleep peacefully, since they have all passed this ‘procedure’ and the hard part is yet to come. The first stage can be held in wet conditions if the rains persist, which would play in favor of Kalle Rovanperä by having to open the track. A scenario in which the Scandinavian drivers move like a fish in water and that can also be favorable for Laauri Joona, the first leader in the WRC3 Junior after this super special.
Classification after SS1 of the 12th Rally Estonia
Rally Estonia continues this Friday (07:45 a.m.) with the dispute of the first stage of the event. Pilots and co-pilots will dispute 139.18 kilometers on this first day.
Photos: M-Sport / Toyota Gazoo Racing