Rally Estonia is one of the fastest events in the FIA World Rally Championship, featuring wide and flowing roads with large jumps, mixed with narrower and more technical sections. With a soft and sandy surface, these sections in particular can become heavily rutted as more cars pass through.

It was agreed following the previous event in Greece that Hikaru Kogure would step back from his participation with the Program. Kogure had shown significant growth across four seasons since joining the Program and, while the most recent results had not met the mutual expectations, all involved wish him the very best for the future.

Yuki Yamamoto therefore took the start of Rally Estonia driving a sole Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 car entered by TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT NG. For this event he was joined in the co-driver’s seat by Topi Luhtinen, with James Fulton unavailable to compete due to personal reasons. While Rally Estonia was returning to the WRC calendar after one year out, Yamamoto did gain experience competing on the event last year when it was part of the FIA European Rally Championship.

Running inside the top 10 in the class from the start, Yamamoto produced a strong and consistent weekend in a competitive WRC2 field against many Estonian and Finnish drivers who feel at home on the fast stages. Avoiding major issues and setting a number of top-six stage times, he finished up seventh in the class at the finish, his best WRC2 result to-date.

The Program’s third generation drivers Shotaro Goto and Takumi Matsushita made their fourth starts of the season in the WRC3 category in a pair of Renault Clio Rally3 cars. Matsushita also had a change of co-driver for this rally after an accident in the pre-event test; his usual navigator Pekka Kelander was uninjured but sore and so would sit out the rally, with Ville Mannisenmäki taking his place.

Matsushita gradually built up his pace, taking two stage wins already on Friday and climbing up to second place in the class. He would then move up to first place on Saturday afternoon when the erstwhile leader Tymek Abramowski had to stop with radiator damage. Matsushita ultimately sealed victory by more than seven minutes; his third class victory of the year and first at WRC level.

Goto had an eventful start to the rally, rolling off the road in Friday morning’s first stage but managing to continue and going on to win SS4, before he hit a rock and damaged his front-right suspension in the following test to bring an early end to his day. He and co-driver Jussi Lindberg returned to action on Saturday and showed strong pace, achieving six further stage wins including a clean sweep of Sunday’s three tests.

Quotes:
Mikko Hirvonen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program chief instructor):
“All three drivers drove really well in Estonia. We were hoping that Yuki could take another step to get closer to the fastest times and he was able to do so. It’s a very competitive category and there were a lot of very strong Estonian and Finnish drivers and Yuki was right there with them, fighting within tenths of a second and fairly consistently as well. So it was a very good and solid performance from him. Takumi’s preparation didn’t go so well and after such a big accident it’s not easy to build up your confidence again on such fast stages. He was really patient and not pushing too hard, and in the end it paid off. It’s an excellent result and moreover a smart drive and a strong recovery through the week after everything that happened. Shotaro made a small mistake on Friday but after that the pace was really good, and I’m sure he could have been up there fighting for a good position as well. Rallies are long and you have to be able to avoid these mistakes, but it was still a good step forward in pace from what he’s had before. For all three it’s been really good build-up for Rally Finland, so they are more than ready to have a good rally and kick on there.”

Yuki Yamamoto:
“I’m happy to finish this Rally Estonia in seventh place in WRC2. I was excited to start this rally because the style of road is more familiar to me than the previous rough gravel rallies, and I was feeling confident after a good pre-event test. At first I didn’t find it easy to judge the grip but soon the feeling came quite naturally and it was getting better all the time. Through the whole weekend we had quite good and consistent pace. There were some small mistakes here and there but I think we can be happy about the pace that we showed and how we managed to get to the finish in a good position. There is still a lot to learn but it’s been a good weekend and I feel ready for Rally Finland.”

Shotaro Goto:
“The roads in Estonia appear similar to those in Finland, but the surface is very different and the grip is a bit lower, and it was difficult for me to fully trust it at first. From Friday morning I had a good rhythm in my driving but I was trying to push too much. In the first stage I rolled the car; it was a small mistake where the surface was much more slippery than I expected. Thankfully I could continue and did a fastest time on the second pass of that stage, but on the next one I hit a rock that was on the inside where I was cutting a bit too much. The instructors told me to try and find the balance between speed and risk and on Saturday and Sunday I think I was able to do that, winning some more stages without big mistakes. So I feel I’ve made some good improvements before Rally Finland.”

Takumi Matsushita:
“I’m really happy about this result. We started a bit slowly on the Friday morning when we had some muddy and very tricky stages, but after that the stages were a bit more similar to what I’m used to in Finland. In general, I found the roads harder to read than in Finland, so I needed to have really precise pacenotes. We’ve been steady and consistent through the weekend and I think that’s why we were able to achieve this result. Thank you to Pekka, Ville and the team for their help and support through this week. Now I feel like I have gained some confidence ahead of Rally Finland, so I’m really looking forward to that.”