Estonia: Linnamäe winner at the end of the suspense

Fighting with his compatriot Robert Virves, Georg Linnamäe was able to reverse the trend in his favor in the final special to achieve his first major success. Having never managed to gain confidence on the fast Baltic roads, Mathieu Franceschi had to settle for 9th place while his rival Hayden Paddon took the lead in the championship.

Published 07/07/2024 à 15:32

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Estonia: Linnamäe winner at the end of the suspense

Georg Linnamäe takes his first ERC victory (Photo: Red Bull)

After a breathtaking first stage, the rally of Estonia concluded on Sunday. A loop of two SS to be run twice was on the program. Integrated this year in ERC (it will exchange places with Latvia in WRC next year, Editor's note), the event returned to its classic base of Otepää, 45 km south of the city of Tartu. Located to the north and south of this service park, the day's sections represented a total of 68,32 km timed. If the day started under the sun, the rain appeared during the Power stage.

Beaten by a second by his compatriot Robert Virves at the end of Saturday, Georg Linnamäe tried to close this gap during the last stage. Her Toyota As Yaris Rally2 behaved less well in the degraded sections, the Tartu driver was unable to compete with the leader. Linnamäe lost time in the first section of the day, then came back to 2”2 behind Virves before appearing to break down in the penultimate section. With now 9s to go, Linnamäe had little hope of winning, but he took his chance. Giving everything in the Power Stage, the Yaris crew managed to regain the lead of the rally and win thanks in particular to an excellent choice of Michelin tires.

Third, Nikolay Gryazin was convincing with the Citroën C3 Rally2 of the PH-Sport team which took care of the car in Estonia.

In the fight for the title, Hayden Paddon performs the best operation in Estonia. Author of a good comeback during the first stage on terrain he already knew, the New Zealander finished this Baltic meeting at 5^e place. The outgoing champion takes the lead in the competition. Paddon was able to benefit from a complicated weekend from Mathieu Franceschi. Discovering the course and probably not wanting to repeat his mistake in Sweden, the Varois tried to limit the damage. With his 10^e position, he saved a few points, but he will have to reverse the trend after 2 frustrating races.

Final ranking