Can red-hot Pajari turn up the temperature on Evans at WRC Rally Chile?

The FIA World Rally Championship enters its decisive three-round home stretch at Rally Chile this weekend, with Elfyn Evans defending a 20-point lead against his in-form Toyota teammate, Sami Pajari, who’s chasing a fourth consecutive victory.

Pajari (pictured above, during Thursday’s pre-rally Shakedown) has transformed the complexion of the title race with a remarkable run of wins in Estonia, Finland and Paraguay, becoming the first driver in WRC history whose maiden three victories have come consecutively.

His latest success reduced Evans’ championship advantage from 30 points to just 20, leaving the factory Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 drivers separated by less than the maximum 35-point score that’s available from a single rally, with Chile, Italy and, as things stand, the Saudi Arabia finale still to come.

Yet Evans arrives in Rally Chile’s Concepcion base with history firmly on his side. The Welshman has never finished outside the top five on Chile’s four previous WRC editions, placing fourth in 2019, third in 2023 and second in each of the past two years. Last season he finished just 11s behind Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Sebastien Ogier – the closest winning margin yet seen on the event.

Opening the road on Friday’s opening leg by dint of his points lead could nevertheless prove significant for Evans if conditions remain dry. Chile’s compact gravel can leave loose material on the surface for the first cars while becoming increasingly abrasive as the field passes through.

“The rally is generally quite a fast one with flowing stages that are usually good to drive,” said Evans, “but the challenge depends a lot on the weather which can change quite dramatically during the weekend.

“When it’s dry, the surface can be very loose for the early cars, and it can also get extremely abrasive to the point that you really have to consider tire management carefully. When it’s wet, it can get pretty muddy, similar to what you might find in Wales, and the fog can also make things extremely difficult.”

Elfyn Evans got a taste of the slippery loose gravel surface during Shakedown. Starting first on the road, the WRC points leader will be hoping for rain to help grip up the stages.

Pajari, meanwhile, has reason to feel equally comfortable on the roads of the Biobio region. The 24-year-old Finn has already contested Chile twice in Rally1 machinery and finished fifth last year.

“We’ve been on a really nice run lately and I hope Rally Chile can be good for us as well,” he said. “It’s a rally I know quite well now, as I’ve done it twice already in the Rally1 car, and it’s one of my favorites because of the profile of the stages.

“Some of them are pretty similar to Finland: really fast and flowing, with some really nice camber that helps you take more speed through the corners. It can also be pretty challenging, with high tire wear, and the weather can change really quickly.”

The fight stretches beyond the leading pair. Another factory Toyota driver, Oliver Solberg, is third in the standings, 41 points behind Evans, and steps into Rally1 machinery in Chile for the first time having twice won the second-tier WRC2 class on the event. The Swede sealed last year’s WRC2 title there.

Nine-time and reigning WRC champ Ogier, currently sixth in the standings, returns as defending Rally Chile winner and will also equal his Toyota Gazoo Racing team principal Jari-Matti Latvala’s all-time record of 213 WRC starts when he begins the event on Friday morning. 

Takamoto Katsuta completes Toyota’s five-car Rally1 presence, with James Fulton standing in for his regular co-driver Aaron Johnston. After a high-speed crash in Paraguay, Johnston is recovering from a collarbone fracture, but is aiming to be back calling Katsuta’s pacenotes in Italy. 

The temporary partnership got off to a positive start, with Katsuta setting fastest time on Thursday morning’s pre-rally Shakedown stage (highlights video below). The Japanese ace’s second run through the 3.58-mile stage stopped the clocks at 4m16.2s, some 2.4s quicker than Adrien Fourmaux’s Hyundai i20 N Rally1 in the second spot. 

“James is doing a very good job,” said Katsuta. “We did a couple of days of practice together and, of course, we all know that James is a very good co-driver. We haven’t had much time together, so we just need to get the feeling between us, find the same rhythm and have the same focus.”

There could also be a major celebration for Toyota in the manufacturers’ championship. The Japanese marque carries a 173-point lead over Hyundai into round 12 and needs to score only seven points in Chile to guarantee another world title.

Hyundai, however, arrives with renewed momentum after demonstrating front-running pace in Paraguay, where part-timer Hayden Paddon headed full-time driver Fourmaux in a 2-3 finish for the Korean marque and the i20 N Rally1 claimed 10 stage victories.

Fourmaux returns to a rally where he finished third last season and believes another attack at the front is possible, while Hyundai’s other full-season driver, Thierry Neuville, finished runner-up in Chile in 2023. They’re joined by Esapekka Lappi, who’s making his fifth and likely final start in the third factory entry.

“We know we were competitive there last year,” said Fourmaux, “and after the performance we had in Paraguay, the target is to fight at the front again and push for the best possible result.”

Completing a 10-car Rally1 entry, M-Sport Ford fields Josh McErlean and Chile debutant Jon Armstrong in a pair of Puma Rally1s. McErlean arrives after equaling his career-best WRC result with sixth in Paraguay, while the team returns to the scene of its most recent world championship victory, achieved with Ott Tanak in 2023.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Robert Virves has the opportunity to brush off the disappointment of Paraguay last time out and move a significant step closer to the class title in Chile.

The Estonian remains firmly in control of the outright WRC2 standings despite seeing his remarkable run of four victories from his first four points-scoring appearances brought to an abrupt end in Paraguay.

Virves and co-driver Jakko Viilo crashed into bushes on Friday’s opening stage there and lost almost an hour making repairs. Yet their subsequent pace underlined what might have been: the Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 crew set nine WRC2 fastest stage times across the remainder of the event, more than any rival.

He therefore arrives in Concepcion still on 100 points, 21 clear of Roope Korhonen and 24 ahead of newly crowned ERC champ Teemu Suninen. Neither of Virves’ two closest outright championship rivals is entered in Chile, but the outright title can’t quite be sealed this weekend – Suninen can still theoretically reach 126 points. Still, a fifth class victory would make the ultimate destination of the WRC2 crown something of a formality.

For WRC2 points leader, Rally Paraguay was a “what might have been” kind of event. He’ll want to make amends with a strong run in Chile. Red Bull Content Pool

But a strong WRC2 field means Virves is far from guaranteed a Chilean victory. Paraguay Rally class winner Diego Dominguez immediately returns to action after a superb home performance which carried the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 driver to seventh overall, while Gus Greensmith – runner-up by just 22.7s in Encarnacion – is again among the leading contenders.

Taylor Gill also heads across the Andes with momentum after finishing fourth in Paraguay on his first outing with Toksport WRT’s Skoda. The Australian described that result as a “good foundation to build on for Rally Chile.”

Lancia Corse HF, meanwhile, fields Nikolay Gryazin and Yohan Rossel fresh from securing the WRC2 teams’ championship in Paraguay. Both have already tasted WRC2 victory this season – Gryazin in Japan and Rossel in Croatia and Spain – and remain capable of disrupting Virves’ title plans. 

Based around Concepcion on south-central Chile’s Pacific coast, the fifth WRC edition of Rally Chile features 16 stages and 193.4 competitive miles through the forest roads of the region.

Friday brings a substantially reworked opening leg, with Turquia, Nuevo Rere and Hualqui each tackled twice. Saturday is the rally’s longest day at 86.49 miles in total and features the familiar Pelun, Lota and Maria las Cruces tests, before Sunday introduces the new 16.67-mile Carampangue stage alongside the returning 5.46-mile BioBio test as the rally-ending, bonus points-paying Wolf Power Stage.

Shakedown and the ceremonial start in Concepcion’s Plaza de la Independencia take place on Thursday, before the championship battle resumes in earnest on Friday morning.

• Catch WRC action from all rounds of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship on RACER Network and the RACER+ App. Tune in on Monday, Sept. 14 at 9.00pm ET for full highlights from Rally Chile.  
• 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 for Rally Chile at 7.30pm ET on Thursday, Sept. 10.
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