The World Rally Championship arrives in the Baltic this week for Rally Estonia, round nine of the 2026 season, with Toyota holding every one of the top five places in the drivers' standings and the series trialling a new, compressed schedule built to cut costs.
Elfyn Evans leads the way. The Welshman's advantage grew to 11 points over team-mate Takamoto Katsuta after seatbelt penalties reshuffled the results of last month's Acropolis Rally, and he arrives on Estonia's high-speed gravel expecting a very different test to the rough Greek mountains.
"Greece was a challenging event for us but we can look forward to something completely different on much faster roads in Estonia and Finland," Evans said.
Sebastien Ogier, who won in Greece to sit third, 37 points back, returns to an event he has not contested in half a decade. "To win in Greece was very important for us," the eight-time world champion said. "Moving from there to Estonia will be a big contrast, and especially for me as I haven't driven this rally for five years."
For Oliver Solberg, Estonia is personal. The Swede scored his maiden WRC victory here last year and comes back searching to rediscover that form. "I'm really looking forward to going back to Rally Estonia," Solberg said. "It's a very special place to me after we took our first win there last year."
The bigger story off the stages is the format. Rally Estonia keeps the full competitive distance, 301.8 kilometres across 18 stages, but squeezes it into roughly 50 hours. Crews complete recce midweek, the ceremonial start is on Thursday, and shakedown plus the first six stages run on Friday. Saturday becomes a nine-stage marathon, and Sunday closes with two passes of the 24.39km Kaariku test.
Rally director Urmo Aava framed the change as a response to team budgets. "We have to look to what our partners need," he said. "We understand the teams need to save some labour costs and we have to help for this." He argued the spectator experience should be unaffected: "From our side, the economic impact will be made by spectators coming to watch the event and this will be the same, Thursday becomes more like a promotional day."
Not everyone is convinced the week actually gets easier. Rally analysts at DirtFish noted the same preparation workload is now packed into fewer days, and Estonia's route is longer than several other 2026 rounds, a compressed calendar week but not necessarily a lighter one. The concept still has support in the paddock. Thierry Neuville, who ran a similar layout in Sardinia, backed the direction. "I have said this many times that we need some longer rallies and we need some shorter rallies, and we need this mix of itineraries," the Hyundai driver said. "I think this is what the new promoter is planning too, to bring something new for the itinerary."
Neuville sits sixth, eight points behind Solberg and 30 adrift of Ogier, and needs a big result to climb back into contention. "We've been competitive in Estonia in recent years, and if the conditions stay dry, they should suit us well," he said. "Our goal is clear: to fight for victory and score a lot of points to fight back in the championship."
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/evans-leads-toyota-top-five-into-condensed-rally-estonia). Visit for full coverage.*