After first WRC victory, Pajari aims for back-to-back wins in ultra-fast Finland

The FIA World Rally Championship heads to its fastest event, Rally Finland, with home driver Sami Pajari looking for back-to-back top-tier wins after dominating in Estonia last time out.

The 24-year-old Toyota Gazoo Racing driver’s breakthrough WRC win came on fast, flowing gravel roads similar to those that he and the WRC crews will face this weekend. But with rallying so embedded in the Finnish psyche and culture, the full-commitment forest roads and jumps of the Jyvaskyla-based event take on an extra intensity.

“To win Rally Estonia was amazing, and a feeling that is still sinking in,” said Pajari. “There was not much time to celebrate or relax, as two days after the rally we were already testing for Rally Finland. Like Estonia, this is one of my favorite rallies, but it’s even more special to be able to compete at home in front of all my family and friends and a lot of fans cheering for us. The stages are amazing – so fast – and I really enjoy driving them. Many will be expecting that we can win again; we can’t underestimate the competition, but we of course hope that we can make it happen.”

Pajari arrives in Finland third in the WRC standings, 33 points behind teammate and points leader Elfyn Evans. Victory this weekend would rack up the 200th WRC win for a Finnish driver and continue the Toyota WRC squad’s extraordinary recent record on the roads around its Jyvaskyla base. The team has won seven of the eight Rally Finlands it’s contested since returning to the WRC in 2017.

Five factory Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 cars are entered, with a driver line-up which currently occupies the top five positions in the WRC standings. All five have won at least one rally this season, Pajari becoming the latest with that Estonia victory, July 16-19.

Sebastien Ogier is a two-time 2026 winner for Toyota, and the nine-time and reigning WRC champ adds an intriguing storyline when he reunites with his eight-time title-winning co-driver Julien Ingrassia this week.

Ingrassia answered a late call to replace Ogier’s regular pacenote caller Vincent Landais, who will miss Finland due to personal reasons.

Ogier and Ingrassia last competed together at Rally Monza in November 2021, where victory secured their eighth world championship. Across a partnership spanning more than a decade, Ogier and Ingrassia claimed 54 WRC wins with four different manufacturers.

Sebastien Ogier and returning co-driver Julien Ingrassia last competed together at the 2021 Rally Monza, taking a win that clinched their eighth WRC title together. Red Bull Content Pool

Their unexpected reunion comes at a critical point in the title race. Ogier lies fourth in the drivers’ standings, 38 points behind teammate Evans with five rallies remaining. The Frenchman is a two-time Rally Finland winner, the first coming with Ingrassia and VW in 2013, the second with the absent Landais and Toyota in 2024.

“I’m sorry that Vincent cannot be with us for Rally Finland due to personal reasons,” said Ogier. “Of course, we still want to push for the best result possible for us and for the team, so I’m pleased that my friend Julien accepted the call to sit next to me one more time.”

Ingrassia, who had originally been due to attend the rally as a Rally.TV pundit, added: “It’s a great honor to get back in the car for this one rally to help Seb, Vincent and the team. It will be a big challenge but I’m looking forward to it.”

Evans leads Takamoto Katsuta by 25 points but must again contend with opening the road on Friday. No driver starting first has won in Finland since Sébastien Loeb in 2011, although Evans has twice conquered the event, in 2021 and ’23.

“Rally Finland is one of my favorite events on the calendar,” Evans said. “It’s an amazing sensation to drive these Rally1 cars on those roads, and in terms of pure driving thrills, nothing else beats it during the season. I’m hoping for some conditions that are more in our favor and enable us to be in the fight from the start of the weekend.”

Katsuta, a two-time 2026 rally winner, finished second on last year’s Rally Finland and put a marker down for this weekend’s “Gravel Grand Prix” with fastest time in the pre-rally shakedown, 0.9s faster than Oliver Solberg in the fifth of the factory GR Yaris entries and Adrien Fourmaux in a factory Hyundai i20 N Rally1.

Hyundai carries renewed confidence to Finland after Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville finished third and fourth respectively in Estonia. Both have previously stood on the podium in Jyvaskyla, while home driver and Hyundai part-timer Esapekka Lappi returns to the scene of his first WRC victory in 2017 – then driving for Toyota. Starting sixth, seventh and eighth should also offer the Hyundai trio an advantage in road conditions should the stages remain dry.

Hyundai’s strong showing in Estonia could see them challenging Toyota in Finland. Thierry Neuville heads a three-car attack. Red Bull Content Pool

M-Sport Ford brings Jon Armstrong, Josh McErlean and part-timer Martins Sesks. Sesks and Armstrong finished seventh and ninth, respectively, in Estonia, while McErlean returns to an event where he placed seventh on his Rally1 debut last season.

The 75th running of Rally Finland comprises 20 special stages adding up to 196.4 competitive miles. More than half of the route has changed from 2025, including the new Sydanmaa and Hoho tests on Friday and two passes of the 18.65-mile Himos-Jamsa stage as Sunday’s final leg.

• Catch WRC action from all rounds of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship on RACER Network and the RACER+ App. Tune in on Monday, Aug. 3 at 9.00pm ET for full highlights from Rally Finland. 

• RACER Network is also your home for the WRC Magazine show, with new episodes landing on the Thursday before every WRC event. Get up to speed – literally – for Rally Finland at 7.30pm ET on Thursday, July 30.   

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