The 25-year-old Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 driver controlled the rally from start to finish and completed the three-stage finale with a winning margin of 18.4secover fellow Estonian Georg Linnamäe. A 10-second time penalty for a false start on SS18 briefly raised eyebrows, but Virves remained out of reach, having built a sufficient cushion over his rivals earlier in the event.

The result capped off a composed and mature drive from Virves, who had battled through food poisoning on Friday and road-sweeping duties on Saturday before bringing the win home in damp conditions on Sunday. He becomes the first Estonian driver to win a WRC2 round since Karl Kruuda in 2014.

Linnamäe, driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, was second throughout the weekend and had openly admitted on Saturday that his only hope of victory would come from a mistake by Virves.

There were no changes to the WRC2 order behind them. Roope Korhonen completed the podium, 31.0sec behind Linnamäe in his Toyota, while Mikko Heikkilä was only 3.3sec back in fourth after recovering from his own 10-second jump start penalty earlier in the rally.

Romet Jürgenson closed out his home round in fifth, 18.8sec behind Heikkilä’s Fabia, while Lauri Joona completed the top six in another Škoda.

© WRC