Autosport Podcast: WRC Rally Estonia preview

Estonia only joined the WRC calendar in 2020 but is quickly establishing itself as a gravel sprint where drivers can ill afford to drop any time across the four days of competition.

Fresh from a fourth win of the season in Kenya, Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera returns to the scene of his breakthrough first WRC win 12 months ago having won five of the 11 the WRC events held since.

Rovanpera’s triumph in Africa headed a dominant Toyota 1-2-3-4 as the Japanese marque outlined the credentials of its GR Yaris, which has undergone an engine and aero upgrade heading into Estonia.

A stellar start to 2022 has seen Rovanpera accumulate a 65-point championship lead over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville ahead of this weekend’s return to Europe. Estonian home hero and 2019 world champion Ott Tanak sits third, 83 points adrift, as Hyundai continues to fight a slew of reliability issues.

Rovanpera and Tanak will be seen as the favourites to succeed in Estonia, with the latter having scored a record four Rally Estonia wins including his first WRC win for Hyundai in 2020.

Meanwhile, Craig Breen is expected to head M-Sport’s charge after finishing second in his last two outings in Estonia when driving for Hyundai.

This weekend’s rally will be contested over 24 stages, comprising 314.26km, and gets underway on Thursday evening.

Join host Martyn Lee and Autosport’s WRC reporter Tom Howard as they discuss all the key talking points ahead of the four-day event, while M-Sport team principal Richard Millener joins the show to explain how the Ford team aims to bounce back from a difficult outing in Kenya.

You can listen to the podcast using the player below, or via all good audio platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.