Nevertheless, Virves starting in the Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 of the Toksport WRT team had to fight. First with health problems as he was suffering from food poisoning at the beginning of the competition. Despite the health issues, he finished the first day with a 35.3-second lead over his home challenger Georg Linnamäe. On the second day, Virves had to deal with ruts in the gravel made by the Rally1 cars on the fast gravel tracks as the first WRC2 category starter, which meant less fast times. A change of specs helped Virves, however, and his lead at the end of the day was 26.5 seconds.
On the third day of the competition, the crews had only three stages to complete so it seemed that Virves would comfortably take the victory. However, in the very first test today the Estonian crew blew a ten-second penalty for an early start. In the second test, Virves made a mistake and overran a turn so his lead was only 14.5 seconds before the final stage. However, Virves made a move in the final power stage and finished 18.4 seconds ahead of his compatriot Linnamäe.
While these two drivers had a comfortable lead at the front of the competition practically from the start, behind them was a fight for the third place and other positions. Finns Mikko Heikkilä and Kristian Temonen were also candidates for the last winners´ podium spot, but they were also penalised for an early start in the last test on Friday. They were narrowing the gap for the remaining two days and were only 3.3 seconds short of the third place at the finish. The TGS Worldwide crew therefore finished fourth. The sixth position was another Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 crew, the Finnish duo of Lauri Joon and Samu Vaaleri from Team MS Munaretto.
The Estonian Rally did not bring any changes to the top of the WRC2 World Championship
standings. The first four drivers of the WRC2 category did not compete in this event.
However, the performance of former Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 special driver Oliver Solberg
is worth nothing: he jumped behind the wheel of a Rally1 class special in Estonia and
celebrated his maiden victory in the top WRC category.
