WRC – Rally Estonia preview
Some of the fastest roads in the FIA World Rally Championship await the crews when the 2021 season moves into its second half at Rally Estonia on July 15-18.
First run in 2010, Rally Estonia has grown to become the largest motor sport event in the Baltic region, and joined the WRC calendar last year to stage the return to competition following the break imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It features high-speed roads with plenty of jumps and crests, combined with more technical sections. Due to the soft and sandy surface, ruts can often provide an added challenge on the second pass of stages.
Having won four of the first six rounds, including the last Safari Rally in Kenya, Sébastien Ogier leads the standings at the halfway stage in his bid for an eighth world title. His advantage lies at 34 points over his Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans. In the Hyundai squad, Thierry Neuville is 56 points away from the lead while Estonian hero Ott Tänak, a further eight points back, will be a favourite to repeat his home victory from 2020.
Finland’s Kalle Rovanperä will feel similarly close to home on Estonia’s high-speed roads, with his fellow Toyota youngster Takamoto Katsuta looking to repeat a great result following his maiden podium finish in Kenya. Craig Breen, who finished second after Tänak on last year’s event, returns at the wheel of the third factory Hyundai for the first time since Rally Croatia in April. Teemu Suninen lines up for M-Sport Ford alongside Gus Greensmith, while Pierre-Louis Loubet will be back in action in his 2C Compétition-entered Hyundai after missing the trip to Africa.
FIA WRC2 championship leader Andreas Mikkelsen tops a 10-car field in the category, with competition coming from the likes of Mads Østberg, Adrien Fourmaux and the Hyundai duo of Jari Huttunen and Oliver Solberg. Nikolay Gryazin will head to Rally Estonia fresh from a FIA European Rally Championship victory in the neighbouring Latvia last week.
Kajetan Kajetanowicz heads a further 14 crews entered in FIA WRC3, which includes Estonian ace Egon Kaur, who finished second in the class on his last outing at Arctic Rally Finland in February, and two-time FIA European Rally Champion Alexey Lukyanuk, who will make his first appearance on the world stage in over four years.
Rally Estonia is round three of the FIA Junior WRC season, in which Latvian driver Mārtiņš Sesks holds a nine-point lead over Finland’s Sami Pajari after winning their previous contest in Portugal.
THE 2021 ROUTE
Rally Estonia changes from three to four days for its second WRC appearance. It will start with a super special stage in Tartu next to the Raadi airfield Service Park which will kick off the competitive action on Thursday evening after Shakedown takes place in the morning. Friday’s four stages, all run twice, feature familiar names from 2020 but with revised routes: Kanepi will be run in the opposite direction to last year. Saturday brings four new stages to the WRC, including the longest test of the rally, the 23.56 kilometre Peipsääre. There’s also a repeat visit to the Tartu super special to round out the day. A trio of repeated stages concludes the rally on Sunday, with the Wolf Power Stage finishing at the Service Park.
MEDIA ACCREDITATION
Media accreditation and attendance is strictly managed with modified terms under COVID-19 regulations. All attendees are required to comply with the COVID protocol as defined by the event organisers (see Bulletin 2 on the Virtual Notice Board in the Competitors section on the event website).
Media accreditation must be collected personally by accredited Pass Holders at the Accreditation Desk, located at the Media Center at the Eesti Rahva Muuseum (Estonian National Museum):
Muuseumi tee 2, 60532 Tartu, Estonia (GPS coordinates: N 58° 23.743 E 026° 44.757)
The opening hours are:
Tuesday 13 July: 14h00 – 20h00
Wednesday 14 July: 08h00 – 20h00
Thursday 15 July: 08h00 – 20:00
Friday 16 July: 08h00 – 14h00
2021 WRC RALLY ESTONIA TIMETABLE AND MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES
| Wednesday 14 July | |
| Mandatory media safety briefing via video conference (details TBC) | 17:00 hrs |
| Family photo with P1 crews (drivers & codrivers), Tartu City Hall | 19:30 hrs |
| Drivers parade, from Tartu City Hall | 20:00 hrs |
| Thursday 15 July | |
| Shakedown for P1 & invited drivers, SD Abissaare | 09:00 – 11:00 hrs |
| Shakedown for all Priority drivers, SD Abissaare | 11:00 – 13:00 hrs |
| Shakedown for all drivers, SD Abissaare | 13:00 – 15:00 hrs |
| FIA Press Conference, via video conference (details TBC) | 14:30 hrs |
| – FIA WRC | 14:30 hrs |
| – FIA WRC2 | 14:40 hrs |
| – FIA WRC3 | 14:50 hrs |
| – FIA Junior WRC | 15:00 hrs |
| Opening ceremonial and rally start, Podium, Raadi airfield | 20:00 hrs |
| First car arrives for media zone & Parc Fermé, Raadi (TC1A) | 20:51 hrs |
| Friday 16 July | |
| Start of Section 2, Raadi Service Park | 08:02 hrs |
| First car arrives for media zone, tech. zone & service (TC5A), Raadi SP | 13:08 hrs |
| First car arrives for media zone, tech. zone, & service (TC9A), Raadi SP | 19:08 hrs |
| Saturday 17 July | |
| Start of Section 4, Raadi Service Park | 07:03 hrs |
| First car arrives for MZ, regroup, tech. zone & service (TC13A), Raadi SP | 13:08 hrs |
| First car arrives for media zone, technical zone & service (TC18A), SP | 20:20 hrs |
| Sunday 18 July | |
| Start of Section 6, Raadi Service Park | 05:53 hrs |
| Media zone during Podium holding (TC24A) – for HD media only | 14:32 hrs |
| Podium Ceremony & Price Giving, Raadi airfield | 15:20 hrs |
| FIA Press Conference, via video conference (details TBC) | 16:45 hrs |
FIA PRESS CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE
| Thursday 15 July | FIA WRC |
| Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT – Elfyn Evans (GBR) | |
| Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT – Ott Tänak (EST) | |
| M-Sport Ford WRT – Teemu Suninen (FIN) | |
| FIA WRC2 | |
| TRT WRT – Mads Ostberg (NOR), Citroën C3 | |
| ALM Motorsport – Georg Linnamäe (EST), Volkswagen Polo GTI | |
| FIA WRC3 | |
| Kajetan Kajetanowicz (POL) | |
| Egon Kaur (EST) | |
| FIA Junior WRC | |
| Robert Virves (EST) | |
| Martin Sesks (LVA) | |
| Sunday 18 July | Winning FIA Junior WRC Championship driver |
| Winning FIA WRC3 Championship driver | |
| Winning FIA WRC2 Championship driver | |
| Top three drivers in the overall classification | |
| Representative of the winning manufacturer |
MANUFACTURER WRC ENTRIES, 2021 WRC RALLY ESTONIA
| Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Sébastien Ogier (FRA) / Julien Ingrassia (FRA) – #1 |
| Elfyn Evans (GBR) / Scott Martin (GBR) – #33 | |
| Kalle Rovanperä (FIN) / Jonne Halttunen (FIN) – #69 | |
| Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Thierry Neuville (BEL) / Martijn Wydaeghe (BEL) – #11 |
| Ott Tänak (EST) / Martin Järveoja (EST) – #8 | |
| Craig Breen (IRL) / Paul Nagle (IRL) – #42 | |
| M-Sport Ford WRT | Gus Greensmith (GBR) / Chris Patterson (IRL) – #44 |
| Teemu Suninen (FIN) / Mikko Markkula (FIN) – #3 |