Sami Pajari Wins Rally Finland as Toyota Sweeps the Podium

Sami Pajari won Rally Finland on home soil, taking his second victory of the 2026 World Rally Championship season and continuing his rapid rise through the sport's top flight. Pajari, partnered as always by co-driver Marko Salminen, completed the four-day gravel classic in 2:27:58.0, seeing off a Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate to claim the win in front of the famously passionate Finnish crowds around Jyväskylä.

The event, held from July 30 to August 2, marked the 75th running of Rally Finland and the tenth round of the 14-event 2026 championship. Crews tackled 20 special stages covering 316.04 km of the fast, jump-heavy gravel roads that have made the event one of the most demanding tests on the calendar, with 61 crews starting and 48 reaching the finish in Jämsä.

It was a clean sweep for Toyota at the front of the field. Oliver Solberg, sharing a GR Yaris Rally1 with Elliott Edmondson, finished second, 26.7 seconds behind Pajari. Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin completed an all-Toyota podium in third, 1:19.5 off the pace. For Evans, the result was less about the stage times and more about the bigger picture: a third-place finish was enough to stretch his lead in the drivers' standings.

Evans now heads the championship with 201 points, with Pajari next on 171, giving the Welshman roughly a 30-point cushion with four rounds remaining. Takamoto Katsuta sits third on 160 points, Solberg fourth on 156, and seven-time champion Sébastien Ogier fifth on 139. In the manufacturers' fight, Toyota Gazoo Racing holds a commanding lead of 174 points over Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, though the title has not yet been mathematically secured.

Notably absent from the fight at the front was reigning WRC champion Kalle Rovanperä, who is not contesting the full 2026 season after moving into Japan's Super Formula Championship. His absence has opened the door for a new generation of Toyota drivers, with Pajari — still in just his second full Rally1 season — emerging as one of the year's standout performers.

With Rally Finland complete, the championship now moves toward its final stretch: rounds in Paraguay, Chile, Italy, and Saudi Arabia will decide both titles. Evans arrives at that run-in as the clear favorite, but Pajari's Finland win is a reminder that the gap at the top of the WRC field remains thin, and that Toyota's roster depth gives the manufacturer options regardless of which of its drivers ends up on top.