Thierry Neuville took the lead on Rally Estonia's traditional opening superspecial, Tartu vald
Photography by Hyundai
Words by Luke Barry
Thierry Neuville is the first leader of Rally Estonia 2025, winning Thursday’s superspecial by half a second over Elfyn Evans.
As has become Rally Estonia tradition, the Tartu vald superspecial opened proceedings on the first evening – although the test has been shortened compared to previous years.
The tight, technical nature of it is absolutely not representative of the flat-out forest action that’s to come, but nevertheless it’s world champion Neuville who heads into Friday with the advantage.
“That’s nothing – the big day is starting tomorrow,” Neuville warned. But he was canny – choosing not to take a spare tire with him for SS1.
“Obviously the target for us is to have fun in the car and go fast,” Neuville continued. “We target a podium, we’ve been able to do it in the past. But we know it’s the rally where I’m not the most comfortable so I need to find the fine line.”
World championship leader Evans was 0.5s slower than Neuville, but 0.1s faster than home hero Tänak who completed the stage to the chorus of a rapturous crowd.
“It is very busy here and for sure it seems like Rally Estonia is a big thing, a lot of passionate people,” said Tänak. “It’s a nice event and luckily nice weather as well – I hope everyone can enjoy the weekend.”
Tänak is seen as one of the pre-rally favorites along with Kalle Rovanperä, who has won each of the past three WRC editions of Rally Estonia. Rovanperä finished the first stage one second off the lead, 0.4s shy of Tänak.
“We just need to dig deep and try our best,” Rovanperä commented. “We haven’t been on our best form this year yet, so obviously it would be a good time to show it. Let’s see what we can do.”
WRC2 driver Robert Virves impressively completed the top five in his Rally2 Škoda, ahead of Toyota trio Takamoto Katsuta, GR Yaris Rally1 debutant Oliver Solberg and Sami Pajari.
Adrien Fourmaux is 2.7s off the lead, with M-Sport trio Josh McErlean, Grégoire Munster and Mãrtiņš Sesks (feeling the love of his local Latvian supporters) completing the Rally1 leaderboard.
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Rally Estonia, Rally Estonia 2025, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date July 17, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/07/1XLVwIy3-2025ESTONIA_RT_017-780x520.jpg July 17, 2025
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