Finland's 200th: Pajari Completes an Unlikely Classic
Sami Pajari and co-driver Marko Salminen delivered one of the most emotionally charged results in recent WRC memory on Sunday, winning the Secto Rally Finland to hand the host nation its 200th world rally championship victory. That it arrived in the event's 75th anniversary edition — and just two weeks after Pajari's breakthrough win in Estonia — made the occasion virtually impossible to script.
Pajari crossed the finish in Jyväskylä with a time of 2h27m58.0s aboard his Toyota GR YARIS Rally1, 26.7 seconds clear of team-mate Oliver Solberg, who completed a defiant run despite nursing a physical injury through Sunday's stages. Elfyn Evans took the final podium step, 1m19.5s off the pace after recovering from a terrifying roll in stage 14 on Saturday. Evans then produced perhaps the drive of the weekend's final day, winning the Power Stage on the closing test to salvage maximum bonus points.
Toyota's dominance was absolute: the Japanese manufacturer's drivers won 18 of the 20 special stages and locked out the top three positions in the overall classification. For a team that entered the weekend under mild pressure after Sébastien Ogier's retirement from the lead on Friday, the 1-2-3 result represented a near-perfect recovery.
A Moment of Finnish History
The magnitude of Pajari's victory extends well beyond personal achievement. He became the 14th Finnish driver to win his home round of the WRC, and the triumph pushed Finland's all-time tally to exactly 200 championship wins — a landmark the country's motorsport community has been counting towards for years. At the ceremonial finish, a visibly emotional Pajari was greeted by 1981 world champion Ari Vatanen, a moment that bridged four decades of Finnish rally legend.
"It's another dream result for us," Pajari said. "Winning at home hasn't always been easy for Finnish drivers, but somehow after a crazy rally we have managed to make it happen."
That "crazy rally" included Ogier's heavy crash on Saturday afternoon in stage 17. The eight-time world champion and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia were taken to hospital as a precaution but were released on Sunday morning, allowing the final day to conclude on sporting rather than medical headlines.
Championship Arithmetic Shifts
The result reshapes the WRC title picture with eight rounds remaining. Evans, despite rolling on Saturday and ceding stage wins all weekend, retains the championship lead on 201 points — but his advantage over Pajari has been cut to exactly 30 points, with the Finn now second on 171. Takamoto Katsuta holds third on 160, and Solberg's gutsy second place lifts him to fourth on 156 points. Ogier, sidelined by his crash, sits fifth on 139.
The gap between first and fifth now stands at just 62 points across nine contested drivers in a field where a single rally result can swing 30 points. That compression makes the remaining calendar — which includes high-speed events where Pajari has shown he is difficult to beat — a genuinely open fight.
WRC2 and Junior Results
In the supporting categories, Robert Virves won WRC2 by 16.1 seconds over Teemu Suninen, while Gil Membrado claimed Junior WRC victory. Rally legend Jari-Matti Latvala completed a competitive return, finishing eighth overall in his Rally2 car.
Round 11 of the 2026 WRC season — Rally del Paraguay — takes place August 27–30, marking the championship's first visit to South America in the current format and potentially a defining swing in what has become one of the sport's tightest title races in recent memory.