Just two weeks after claiming victory in Rally Estonia, Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen followed it up with another triumph on home soil at Secto Rally Finland. As the iconic Finnish event celebrated its 75th anniversary in Jyväskylä, the Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2 pairing added another historic milestone by securing the 200th Finnish victory in FIA World Rally Championship history. With back-to-back wins, the Finns have now climbed to second place in the championship standings.
The rally got underway on Thursday evening with the traditional Harju super special stage, where thousands of spectators gathered to witness the opening test. Already during Thursday morning’s shakedown and the rally parade held the previous day, it was clear that huge crowds had arrived. Fine weather, the final opportunity to see the current generation of Rally1 cars in Finland, a newly crowned Finnish WRC winner, and a star-studded entry list had clearly generated enormous interest.
There were many similarities between Pajari’s performance in Finland and his dominant drive in Estonia. The pace was already there in the Ruuhimäki shakedown, and although he was only sixth fastest on the opening Harju stage, the gap to the fastest time on the largely asphalt-based test was just 1.9 seconds.
Friday began with the Laukaa stage, which did not go entirely according to plan for Pajari. He was only seventh fastest, losing 4.9 seconds to teammate Sébastien Ogier. On the following Saarikas stage, however, it was obvious that the attack had begun. A stage-winning time by 1.6 seconds immediately promoted the Finn from seventh to third overall.
The climb continued on the brand-new Sydänmaa stage. Ogier set the fastest time, while Pajari was only 0.5 seconds slower. The final stage of the morning loop was another new test, the 9.55-kilometre Hoho stage, where surprisingly large time gaps emerged. Pajari set the fourth-fastest time, 3.5 seconds behind Ogier. Overall, he held third place, exactly eight seconds behind the Frenchman.
The afternoon restarted perfectly for Pajari with another fastest stage time in Laukaa. The gaps remained relatively small, but he climbed into second overall, just 5.4 seconds behind Ogier.
The second pass of Saarikas then turned into a spectacular show created by Mother Nature. Rain began to fall, and the first four cars on the road — Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta, Sami Pajari and Sébastien Ogier — already struggled with the changing conditions. However, the rain intensified dramatically for those starting later. Adrien Fourmaux and Oliver Solberg, both among the leading contenders, lost huge amounts of time, with Fourmaux dropping around one and a half minutes and Solberg roughly a minute.
The overall top three now consisted of Sébastien Ogier, Sami Pajari (+3.3s) and Elfyn Evans (+9.5s), while everyone else had fallen significantly behind.
The next stage, Sydänmaa, reshuffled the leaderboard once again as the rain continued. Fogging windscreens and standing water made driving anything but enjoyable. Ogier managed to remain among the frontrunners, Evans lost over 20 seconds, while Pajari conceded more than half a minute. Evans moved ahead of the Finn in the overall standings, with Ogier now leading by 26.1 seconds and Pajari sitting 33.5 seconds behind.
On the final two stages of the day, Ogier wisely avoided taking unnecessary risks on the slippery roads, allowing Evans and Pajari to reduce the deficit slightly. Heading into Saturday, Ogier led Evans by 16.3 seconds, while Pajari was 26.7 seconds off the lead.
Saturday’s opening loop produced stage wins for Evans, Pajari, Pajari and Ogier. After three stages, Ogier led Evans by 11.6 seconds and Pajari by 20.9 seconds.
Drama struck on the fourth stage when Evans rolled his car close to the finish, losing nearly two minutes. Ogier’s lead over Pajari now stood at 22.7 seconds before the afternoon loop.
Toyota’s mechanics performed an impressive repair job on Evans’ car during service. Pajari then set the fastest time on Parkkola, although Evans was only 0.3 seconds slower. Ogier responded by winning Päijälä, with Pajari third, just 0.4 seconds behind.
Everything changed dramatically on the Västilä stage.
Sébastien Ogier and his one-event stand-in co-driver Julien Ingrassia were caught in a violent series of rolls after leaving the road at high speed. Their Toyota crashed through several small trees before coming to a halt. The stage was immediately stopped while medical crews attended to the crew.
The fastest time on the interrupted stage went to Pajari, who suddenly found himself leading his home rally by 45 seconds over Oliver Solberg. On the day’s final stage, Leustu, he extended that advantage to 46.4 seconds. Evans, meanwhile, had recovered from his earlier accident to climb back to third overall, 1 minute 36.3 seconds behind.
Sunday featured only two runs over the 30-kilometre Himos–Jämsä stage.
Pajari and Salminen approached the opening pass with great caution, conceding 10 seconds to the fastest time while still recording the fourth-fastest stage time.
“It was a great stage and everything is under control. I almost felt embarrassed driving that slowly,” Pajari joked afterwards.
The same composed approach continued on the Power Stage a little over two hours later. During the first two-thirds of the stage the Finn remained close to the leading pace, before easing off over the final section and backing off even further during the last two kilometres on the ski resort service road.
It was a textbook example of risk management.
Pajari crossed the finish line to secure victory in Rally Finland by 26.7 seconds over Oliver Solberg. Fifth-fastest time on the Power Stage and fifth in the Super Sunday classification added two bonus points to the 25 earned for the overall victory. As a result, the Finnish duo will head to Paraguay second in the championship standings behind Elfyn Evans.
Pajari and Salminen also became the first crew ever to win both Rally Estonia and Rally Finland in the same season. As the event celebrated its 75th anniversary, their victory also marked the 200th Finnish win in World Rally Championship history. To top it all off, Pajari became the youngest-ever winner of Rally Finland, triumphing at the age of 24 years, 8 months and 1 day.
“What an incredible rally it was. Winning this event has never been easy for Finnish drivers, so to stand on the top step of the podium after such a crazy weekend feels incredibly special. The fight was even tougher and more intense than it was in Estonia.
There were twists and turns throughout the entire event, from changing weather conditions to both minor and major accidents. Seb and Julien’s crash on Saturday was particularly heavy, so it was a huge relief to hear during the rally that they had escaped any serious injuries, and later that they were already determined to fight again later this season.
The support we received from the home fans throughout the rally week was simply overwhelming. We saw encouragement and banners everywhere we went. It’s almost humbling to see how passionately people follow our journey. I gratefully accept every bit of that support and want to thank everyone who has been cheering us on.
Apart from Friday’s rain, the 75th anniversary edition of Rally Finland was run in fantastic weather in front of huge crowds. Without spectators and fans, there would be no sport. Thank you to all the volunteers and everyone involved in organising the event for allowing us to compete on these amazing roads and be part of such a world-class rally. Finally, thanks to the team for providing such a fantastic car and doing an outstanding job. After a short break, we’re ready to focus on the challenges that lie ahead this autumn.”