WRC Estonia: why tyres matter

After a series of rough and rocky rallies in the south of Europe and Africa, the World Rally Championship heads north for two of the fastest events of the season in Estonia and Finland. As well as being extremely quick, the gravel stages in these northern European forests are generally very smooth. But they're not necessarily as straightforward as they might first appear, especially in Estonia. The surface here is softer and sandier than further north in Finland and can become increasingly cut-up as well as rutted as more cars pass over it, increasing the challenge for the drivers and the tyres.

Despite the sustained high speeds and frequently large jumps, the preferred choice when it comes to tyres in Estonia is Pirelli's soft-compound Scorpion KX tyres. These guarantee optimal grip on the low-grip surfaces, with good traction crucial to gathering speed out of the corners. Another reason why the soft tyre is popular is the unpredictable weather. In 2021, the rally was held in temperatures exceeding 30 degrees centigrade, but the 2022 running was affected by scattered rain showers throughout. Drivers, teams, and tyres have to be ready for anything and everything.

Rally Estonia is a relatively modern event, having only run for the first time in 2010. As part of the European Rally Championship, it became a popular warm-up event for Rally Finland before it then joined the world championship in 2020. This gave the event the opportunity to develop more of a character of its own, and in the search for more stages to expand the route, the organisers could combine their wide, flat-out gravel highways with some narrower and more twisty sections.

The rally is based in the country's second-largest city, Tartu: around a two-hour drive south-east of the capital, Tallinn. The Thursday evening opening ceremony in the historic centre of Tartu is popular with fans and drivers alike, and it precedes a short super special stage adjacent to the service park, which is located on a former airfield that is now home to the Estonian National Museum. After that it's into the forests: Friday, the longest day of the rally, takes in a couple of stages to the north of Tartu, but the rest of the action takes place to the south, with a total of 300 competitive kilometres to be tackled across the weekend.