On Saturday, the Estonian car rally championships ended with the 55th Saaremaa Rally. Egon Kaur and Silver Simm (Volkswagen; 1:05.32.9) won.
At the end of the opening day, the new world junior rally champion Robert Virves (Škoda) held the leading position, winning two of the three scheduled speed tests. Kaur finished Friday's race day in third place behind Ken Torn (Škoda).
The first speed test on Saturday was won by Virves and the second by Kaur. In the sixth speed test of the rally, Torn showed his power, and he also emerged as the new leader in the overall standings. Unfortunately, Torn was forced to stop the rally after the seventh speed test due to two flat tires, and Kaur took the lead.
In the last six speed tests, Kaur's advantage remained between five and eight seconds, and the two fastest rally drivers were separated by 7.8 seconds in the final table.
"The rally was difficult from the beginning. There were two very fast islanders at the start (Torn and Virves - ed.) and so it was expected that there would be a close fight for the victory. That's how it happened. It's a pity that Torn had to stop. He probably stepped on the same rake as us last year when we had to stop due to a flat tire," Kaur said after the race.
"We didn't take a lot of risks, but it can't be said that we drove slowly because of that. We still tried to drive as fast as possible. I believe that the overall pace was quite good," said Virves.
Third place went to Priit Koik (Škoda), who lost to the winner by one minute and 48 seconds. Gregor Jeets (Škoda), who secured the Estonian championship title in Paide on the penultimate stage, was fourth (+1.55.1) overall in the Saaremaa Rally.
Source: ERR
