Sami Pajari will take a commanding lead into the final day of Rally Finland after a dramatic Saturday saw TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team’s hopes transformed by separate incidents for Sébastien Ogier and Elfyn Evans.
The Finnish driver heads into Sunday’s finale with a 46.4-second advantage over team-mate Oliver Solberg after overnight leader Ogier crashed out late in the day, while Evans recovered from a morning rollover to climb back to third overall.
“It has been a crazy day with a lot of different things happening, and suddenly we find ourselves in the lead tonight,” Pajari said.
“The morning was really enjoyable; I was having maybe the best time that I’ve ever had behind the wheel of a rally car, driving these beautiful stages with the best car in the world. After Elfyn’s roll we moved up to second and thought the gap to Seb was too much to catch, so I just tried to keep enjoying and keep some flow in my driving.
“Then Seb went off, and the most important thing is that both he and Julien are OK. It shows that things can change very quickly and we still have two stages to do tomorrow, so nothing is decided yet.”
Saturday’s route featured two loops of four fast gravel stages south-west of the Jyväskylä service park, with Ogier beginning the day holding a 16.3-second advantage over Evans.
Evans immediately began to chip away at the deficit, winning the opening stage of the day and reducing the gap to 11.6 seconds before disaster struck on the final stage of the morning loop. The Welshman rolled his Toyota near the finish after running wide into a ditch.
With assistance from spectators, Evans was able to return to the road and complete the stage, although he dropped almost two minutes to the rally leader. Toyota’s mechanics then completed extensive repairs during the midday service, allowing Evans to rejoin the rally and recover to third overall during the afternoon.
“Today started pretty well with a good feeling in the car,” Evans said.
“Unfortunately we got caught out in the last stage of the morning, running a bit wide into a ditch and rolling multiple times. A huge thanks to the team who did an incredible job to put the car right in service; it was brilliant all afternoon and that allowed us to fight and gain back positions.”
Ogier appeared firmly in control after extending his lead over Pajari to 20.9 seconds midway through the afternoon. However, the eight-time world champion’s rally came to an abrupt end on SS17 when he left the road in a high-speed left-right sequence.
Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia exited the car without assistance and were taken to hospital for precautionary examinations. Toyota later confirmed both crews escaped serious injury, with medical checks returning positive results, although they remained in hospital overnight for observation due to the severity of the impact.
Deputy team principal Juha Kankkunen said the team’s immediate concern was the wellbeing of the French crew.
“It has been a very eventful day today,” Kankkunen said.
“The most important thing is that I have spoken with Seb and Julien and they are both OK and nothing is broken. We need to check the data to understand what happened because it would be unlike Seb to go off in a place like that; he was doing a fantastic job controlling the rally and wasn’t having to push too hard.”
Kankkunen also praised the team’s effort to rebuild Evans’ damaged car.
“Elfyn made a small mistake this morning but the damage looked worse than it was and the team did an incredible job to get him back out this afternoon, when he and the car were clearly very fast.”
Oliver Solberg capitalised on the changing circumstances to move into second place, while Takamoto Katsuta completed another solid afternoon to end the day fifth overall after continuing to refine the setup of his GR Yaris Rally1.
In WRC2, Toyota also enjoyed success as team principal Jari-Matti Latvala climbed to eighth overall and led his category, with Teemu Suninen ninth overall and leading the WRC2 standings among registered points scorers.
Rally Finland standings after Saturday
- Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) – 2:00:38.0
- Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +46.4s
- Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1:36.3
- Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +1:40.1
- Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2:54.5
- Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3:52.9
- Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +3:54.4
- Jari-Matti Latvala/Juho Hänninen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +6:50.8
- Teemu Suninen/Janni Hussi (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +7:01.1
- Robert Virves/Jakko Viilo (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +7:04.2
The rally concludes on Sunday with two passes of the new-look 30.02km Himos-Jämsä stage. The second run will serve as the Power Stage, with bonus championship points available for both the fastest stage times and the overall Super Sunday classification.
