More than five months after round three in Mexico, the WRC will restart in line with the guidelines set by the FIA for the return of motor sport as well as the requirements of the Estonian government in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The strict protocol includes mandatory pre-testing for teams, media and officials, the use of face masks, social distancing, the creation of groups to minimise the risk of any possible spread and a controlled number of spectators on the rally route in line with the restrictions for mass gatherings. 

While it is new to the World Championship, Rally Estonia has run successfully since 2010 when the country’s first WRC event-winner Markko Märtin won the inaugural edition. Between 2014 and 2016, it was part of the FIA European Rally Championship and in 2019, it was hosted as a WRC Promotional Event with all of the manufacturer teams and several of the leading drivers taking part. The stages in Estonia are similar in nature to those in nearby Finland, especially in terms of speed and feature a smooth gravel surface.

Frenchman Sébastien Ogier leads the drivers’ championship by eight points over Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans from Great Britain after their respective victories in Mexico and Sweden at the beginning of the year, while 19-year-old Finn Kalle Rovanperä is fourth in the standings in his rookie season in a World Rally Car – a positive start for all three drivers with their new squad.

Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville from Belgium is third in the standings, 20 points behind Ogier, but the centre of attention in Estonia will be his team-mate Ott Tänak, with the reigning World Champion getting the chance to shine on home ground in the WRC for the first time. Irishman Craig Breen makes his second start of the season in the third factory Hyundai.

Finnish pair Esapekka Lappi and Teemu Suninen will be competing close to home for the M-Sport Ford team, joined once more by Brit Gus Greensmith in the third Fiesta WRC. Toyota fields a fourth Yaris for Japanese protege Takamoto Katsuta, while a fourth Hyundai i20 WRC lines up in the hands of Pierre-Louis Loubet: the reigning FIA WRC2 champion from France will make his debut at the sport’s top level along with the Hyundai 2C Competition team.

The return of the WRC has attracted the largest entry of the year so far across the WRC2 and WRC3 categories for Rally2 machinery, with a combined 28 crews set to take part.

In WRC2, championship leader Mads Østberg (Norway) in a PH Sport Citroën takes on the Hyundai pair of Nikolay Gryazin (Russia) and Ole Christian Veiby (Norway), M-Sport Ford driver Adrien Fourmaux (France) and Toksport WRT adds a second Škoda Fabia for Eyvind Brynildsen (Norway) alongside Mexico winner Pontus Tidemand (Sweden).

In WRC3, Jari Huttunen (Finland) and Marco Bulacia (Bolivia) – both winners at the start of 2020 – head the large WRC3 entry, where Oliver Solberg (Norway) will be among those to watch following his recent FIA European championship victory in the neighbouring Latvia.

Round two of the FIA Junior WRC takes place in Estonia with Tom Kristensson from Sweden leading the field of 12 drivers entered.

THE 2020 ROUTE

Rally Estonia will run under a compact format, with the opening stage on Friday evening in Tartu next to the Service Park at the Raadi airfield. Over half of the rally’s 232.64 competitive kilometres will be covered on Saturday. Prangli, the longest stage of the event at 20.23km, opens a loop of five stages that will be run for a second time following the mid-day service. Sunday features a trio of tests, all run twice, ending with the Maaritsa Power Stage.

MEDIA ACCREDITATION

Media accreditation and attendance is strictly managed with modified terms under COVID-19 regulations. Media packages must be collected personally by accredited Pass Holders at the Accreditation Desk located at the Media Center in the Estonian National Museum (Eesti Rahva Muuseum, Muuseumi tee 2, 60532 Tartu, Estonia. GPS coordinates: N 58° 23.743 E 026° 44.757)

The opening hours are:

Wednesday 2 September: 14:00 - 21:00 hrs

Thursday 3 September: 08:00 - 21:00 hrs

Friday 4 September: 08:00 - 21:00 hrs

2020 WRC RALLY ESTONIA TIMETABLE AND MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES

FIA PRESS CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE

MANUFACTURER WRC ENTRIES, 2020 WRC RALLY ESTONIA

2020 FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP CLASSIFICATIONS

The provisional classifications for all the WRC Championships is available on the following link:
https://www.fia.com/events/world-rally-championship/season-2020/standings