Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen finally won Rally Finland, laying to rest the ghost of last year when they crashed out on the penultimate stage.

It was a scintillating final Wolf Power Stage which Rovanperä won by two seconds from Takamoto Katsuta and Sebastien Ogier.

The Finnish wunderkind took the Super Sunday bonus points and moves into second place in the championship standings, just three points off Elfyn Evans who reclaimed the title lead after a disastrous weekend for Ott Tanak.

Tanak suffered a delaminated tyre which caused a high-speed spin on the final stage while Adrien Fourmaux suffered yet another puncture and retired four km from the end of the stage to avoid further damage to his car.

Elfyn Evans brought his GR Yaris home in fourth overall having won the morning’s first stage by 0.4 seconds from Ogier.

Sami Pajari came home in fifth overall, giving Toyota a top five lockout, only the second time in history, a feat last achieved by Lancia 35 years ago on Rally Portugal in 1990.

Thierry Neuville brought his Hyundai home in sixth overall, having run in second place until his fateful puncture on stage 16 on Saturday afternoon.

Josh McErlean was the top M-Sport Ford crew in seventh, followed by Martins Sesks and Gregoire Munster. Ott Tanak salvaged a single point for tenth.

Roope Korhonen fended off TGR Team boss Jari-Matti Latvala to claim his maiden WRC2 victory with Robert Virves rounding out the podium.

Read Motorsport Monday for the full story on the fastest rally in history where Rovanperä averaged 129.9km/h!

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Wet weather greeted the competitors on Saturday morning as the longest day of Rally Finland got underway.

Overnight, Ott Tanak was given a five-minute penalty for a scrutineering incident in a tyre checking zone after stage seven, where he had just crashed into a tree. The penalty dropped the Estonian down to 24^th position in the overall standings.

Rovanperä, chasing his first home win, set off to increase his lead which he almost doubled from 4.9 to 8.3 seconds after Saturday’s opening stage. On stage 12, the Finn’s lead was 12.0 seconds but on (unlucky) stage 13, he picked up a slow puncture and lost 2.7 seconds to Thierry Neuville, who still held second overall.

Rovanperä powered his GR Yaris to another stage win to extend his lead to 14.7 seconds at the end of the morning loop after Neuville lost the rear brakes on his Hyundai. The podium fight between the Belgian and Adrien Fourmaux in third was down to 0.3 seconds.

After the midday service, it was raining again and the crews faced tough conditions. Martins Sesks crawled through the first part of stage 15 with zero visibility and finally found a safe place to pull over and clear the misted-up windscreen. He lost over two minutes and dropped from being the leading M-Sport crew to tenth overall.

At the sharp end of the field, Sebastien Ogier took his first stage win with the top five drivers covered by a mere 1.2 seconds. Sami Pajari turned up the wick to take the fastest time in stage 16 having lost his sixth place overall to Elfyn Evans on the previous stage.

Stage 16 tuned the rally on its head. Lightning struck Hyundai twice; firstly, Fourmaux picked up a right-front puncture which did quite a bit of cosmetic damage to his i20 N as he continued, albeit at a reduced pace and moments later, Neuville also picked up a right-front puncture.

Fourmaux dropped a minute 48.8 seconds and plummeted to seventh, while Neuville lost one minute 38.2 seconds and dropped to sixth overall. Both drivers said they had no idea how their punctures had happened…

Suddenly, Toyota held a one-two-three-four-five with Rovanperä streaking away with a twenty-nine second lead over Takamoto Katsuta, Ogier, Evans and Pajari.

The final two stages went off without any incidents, with Rovanperä taking the scratch time in both stages to end the day with a 36.8 second lead while Evans was closing on Ogier with 1.5 seconds separating the pair.

In WRC2, Roope Korhonen continues to lead with Jar-Matti Latvala holding second from Robert Virves.

The final day features just two stages; the iconic Ouninpohja stage, at 23.98km in length will be run twice.

It is far from over…

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Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen ended the first full day of WRC Secto Rally Finland with a 4.9 second lead over Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe. Those are the bare facts but do not tell the spectacular story.

In a rally where stages are won by tenths of a second, or even tied in a dead heat, 4.9 seconds is considered a decent lead, as the double world champion fights for his first ever victory on his home event.

After winning the opening superspecial stage on Thursday evening around the streets of Jyväskylä. Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja slithered down the order on Friday as they opened the road in the Hyundai i20 N.

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen won the opening stage from Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston by 0.1 seconds with Rovanperä a further 0.3 behind.

The Japanese and Finn drivers shared the early overall leaderboard before Rovanperä went on the rampage, setting spectacular stage times as he won stages three and four and took the rally lead which he stretched out over the course of the day as he added stage seven to his tally, but it was still super close with the top four separated by eight seconds.

The fight for second was breathtaking; 3.2 seconds covered Neuville in second, Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria in third and Katsuta.

The defending world champion won stage nine and finished three stages with a top three time as he came on song in the afternoon loop, which saw rain turn the stages into damp and muddy roads.

Fourmaux won stage eight, which he tied with Rovanperä, and stage ten to cement his provisional podium place which he took off Katsuta after stage nine.

Katsuta had his strongest morning since the Safari Rally with two second fastest times and held second position overall but after the midday service, his driving became more flawed on the wet stages and slid down to fourth, despite winning stage six.

Pajari took stage five but in the first wet stage after lunch, he was overcautious and with the eighth fastest time on the board, he dropped to fifth overall.

Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais, winners in Finland last year, were strangely off the pace in their Toyota GR Yaris and found themselves in sixth overnight with a mountain to climb over the remaining stages. Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were also off the leading pace, running second on the road all day.

Martins Sesks and Renārs Francis were the leading M-Sport Ford runners as expected in eighth with Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy holding ninth ahead of the 2019 champions Tanak and Jarveoja.

The Estonian, who took the championship lead after Rally Estonia two weeks ago, suffered from running first on the road and his situation worsened when he did a bit of logging in the forest after understeering into a tree in stage seven. The damage appeared to be cosmetic, and he completed stage eight with a flapping bonnet and a second-hand sounding engine, but the Hyundai made it back to service.

Gregoire Munster and Louis Louka were disappointing in their Puma. Munster had a huge slide in a fast right hander and dropped 22 seconds in stage two and had a full spin in stage four after out braking himself and ended up at the bottom of the Rally1 runners.

Roope Korhonen leads WRC2 from Robert Virves with Georg Linnamäe holding third from Toyota team boss Jari-Matti Latvala.

Oliver Solberg went from hero to zero after rolling out of the rally in stage seven; the car understeered at speed into a ditch which pitched car over. And out.

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Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja have crashed out of Secto Rally Finland 2km into stage three. Both crew were out of the car. A statement from Hyundai said: “Ott and Martin went off the road on SS3 of Rally Finland. Ott is ok, however Martin will be taken to hospital for further checks. We will provide more updates when possible”

It is raining in Finland and after SS4, Evans leads Rovanpera, Ogier and Katsuta with Lappi and Neuville in fifth and sixth. Neuville had an overshoot into the forest in SS3

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Ott Tanak held off charging Kalle Rovanpera to win his third Rally Finland and halt Rovanpera’s winning streak. Toyota’s Esapekka Lappi would recover from a late roll to finish in third, over a minute behind.

Tanak made his feelings known about being chased down on Sunday by extending his lead over Kalle Rovanpera in the first stage. The gap increased to 10.3s with the Estonian making sure that he wasn’t going to give up the win without a fight.

Tanak’s teammate, Thierry Neuville finished third on the stage, but the leading two drivers were in a class of their own on the loose surface.

This was further evidenced by the pair setting exactly the same time on SS20 as both weren’t willing to take risks on the stage. There was no movement in the lower positions with Esapekka Lappi still leading his teammate Elfyn Evans by 43s going into the last two tests.

It would all go wrong for Lappi on SS21 however, The Finn ran wide and got his Yaris into a rut. The car rolled multiple times, but Lappi only dropped 20.5s and still held his third position.

Despite the roll, however, Lappi would hold on to third after the Wolf Power Stage. The Finn only dropped 10s to Evans and completed the stage with no windscreen, but he was happy to have made it still on the podium

‘Wow, that’s nice! There was a rut in the previous stage and we hit it and immediately started to roll…I don’t know what to say – I am sorry to the team for breaking the car but it’s good to be here’

It was to be Ott Tanak that would take the win after only dropping 3s in the final stage. Rovanpera claimed the Power Stage win, but it wasn’t enough to reel in his Estonian rival. Craig Breen and Evans would take 2^nd and 3^rd respectively in the Power Stage.

‘The Toyota guys gave me some hope on Friday in the beginning and since then we saw our chance. We were pushing from there, but all I want to say in these difficult times is that it’s really down to my wife, she has been supporting me so much and I am really proud of her – I love you so much.’

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Ott Tanak managed to see off the challenge of Kalle Rovanpera in tricky conditions to end the day 8.4s ahead of the new challenger from Toyota.

Saturday got underway in tricky conditions, intermittent rain on the opening loop meant that the drivers would have to navigate changeable grip conditions on the fast Finland stages.

Ott Tanak managed to extend his lead in the morning tests to lead by 9.5s over Esapekka Lappi. The Estonian wouldn’t be the one to benefit the most however as championship leader, Kalle Rovanpera managed to cut down his 21s gap to 12.9s.

Rovanpera, a master in tricky conditions, jumped his teammate Elfyn Evans in the second stage to take third spot. Despite an off in the final morning stage, Rovanpera would lead Evans by 5s but sounded like he was just happy to have finished

“We are lucky to be here…We had one pace note a bit too fast and we were completely off the road!”

The start to Saturday was more positive for the Hyundai of Thierry Neuville. The Belgian moved into fifth position along with Takamoto Katsuta in sixth due to Ford’s Craig Breen hitting a rock after a jump. Along with differential changes, Neuville’s rally started to look more positive.

Breen’s accident meant that Pierre-Louis Loubet and Gus Greensmith would move into seventh and eighth as the lead Fords.

It would be on SS16 that Rovanpera would take second postion from his teammate. Lappi was suffering with reduced visibility due to a cracked windscreen, along with Rovanpera setting the pace, Lappi was now 8.5s behind in third.

Over SS17 and 18 Rovanpera would continue to try to chase down Tanak, with the Toyota getting the gap down to 8.3s at the end of the day to set up a Sunday morning showdown.

Lappi shipped more time to the leading pair as he still suffered with a cracked windscreen. Evans however would be lucky on the final stage. A bolt that attaches the suspension strut to the upright had snapped after SS17 so was nursing a wounded Toyota through the final stage.

Neuville finished the day still in fifth followed by Katsuta but a 30s+ gap would separate the two.

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Ott Tanak finished Friday at the top of the standings by 3.8s. Esapekka Lappi would be the highest Toyota driver with Welshman Elfyn Evans third.

Despite a quick start on the morning loop by Tanak, Lappi would spend the afternoon chipping away at the gap, making sure the Hyundai driver only held a slender lead going into Saturday.

Fan favourite event, Rally Finland got underway on Thursday with Thierry Neuville blasting out the blocks to take the win on the 3.48km stage. Neuville, who currently sits second in the points, topped his teammate Ott Tanak to end the day 1.2s ahead. The third position went to Toyota driver, Takamoto Katsuta who was a further 1.4s back despite having no hybrid boost in his car.

Neuville wasn’t overly confident about his prospects for the rally despite topping the times. “At the moment I do not feel comfortable in the car. We made some setup changes in shakedown and I’m just crossing my fingers that I have a better feeling tomorrow”.

Friday got underway with a Hyundai in the lead, but it wasn’t Thursday’s winner; Ott Tanak out-paced Esapekka Lappi on the morning loop. The Estonian pulled out a 6.2s lead prior to the afternoon runs with one of the stages canceled. Tanak started with a gap of 2.7s over the Finn after the first stage and despite gaining 3 tenths in Lankamaa, Lappi would have to wait to make his presence felt more.

One of Tanak’s teammates didn’t have a good start to Friday. Oliver Solberg rolled his Hyundai on the opening stage on the first turn. Solberg, who hasn’t had a good run of rallies, and his co-driver were ok after the accident but were out for the day.

Tanak went on to extend his lead in SS7 to 8.7s but was chased by a trio of Toyotas. Elfyn Evans held third place with a 15.3s gap to the leading Hyundai, with championship leader Kalle Rovanpera rounding out the top 4 a further 2s back.

Tanak was becoming the only challenger to Toyota as Neuville had fallen back after Thursday and was running seventh after complaining about a lack of grip.

SS8 saw Ford debutant Jari Huttunen, hit trouble with a fuel pressure problem on his Puma. Huttunen was making his top category debut this weekend and was going quite steady when he was forced to stop 13.7km into the stage.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom at Ford though as Craig Breen made his way into the top 5 only 0.6s ahead of Katsuta. Ford’s rallies have had a habit of being filled with drama which Breen was keen to avoid.

The last three stages saw the gap tighten at the top, Esapekka Lappi would start to cut into Tanak’s lead from SS8 onwards. The Finn would finish the day 3.8s behind the two-time Rally Finland winner. Elfyn Evans occupied third but 19.3s off the leader with Rovanpera only 1.7s behind.

Breen would finish the day in fifth 32.5s back and Katsuta would make it four Toyotas in the top 6.

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The Biggest, Highest and Longest rally jumps of WRC Secto Rally Finland 2021. The high speeds of Rally Finland creates some of the best rally jumps ever. See top rally drivers flat out over huge rally finland jumps in our special rally jump compilation.

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Elfyn Evans stormed to victory at Secto Automotive Rally Finland on Sunday afternoon to keep alive his hopes of a maiden FIA World Rally Championship title.

A stunning series of five back-to-back speed test wins on Friday night and Saturday morning propelled the Welshman from fifth to first. He survived intense pressure from Ott Tänak and Craig Breen across the rest of the rally to win by 14.1s in a Toyota Yaris.

Nothing less than victory would suffice in his title quest and with maximum points for winning the closing Wolf Power Stage, the Welshman slashed championship leader Sébastien Ogier’s advantage from 44 points to 24 with two rounds remaining.

“This one feels good in the way we managed to do it,” smiled Evans, for whom this was a fifth career win. “We struggled a lot [on the fast roads] in Estonia and we made some changes to the car in the test and found some confidence early on.

“I always said from the outset the aim was to do the best on each rally we have left. We have to just focus on doing our best in [the next round] in Spain and worry about the rest later.”

His Toyota Gazoo Racing team is based near the host city of Jyväskylä and victory preserved its unbeaten Rally Finland record since returning to the WRC in 2017. Toyota also increased its manufacturers’ championship lead over Hyundai Motorsport to 61 points.

Against a backdrop of stunning autumnal colours in the forests, the championship’s fastest roads provided tremendous action and Tänak and Breen both led on the opening day in a furious battle in their Hyundai i20s.

Ultimately, they had no answer to Evans’ pace, but set-up improvements midway through Saturday gave Tänak more confidence and he eased clear of Breen to finish 28.1s ahead.

Despite an overshoot at a junction on Sunday morning, the Irishman bagged his third podium from his last three outings and matched his 2016 result.

Esapekka Lappi, winner in 2017, made a remarkable return to top-level competition in a privately-entered Yaris after 10 months away. The Finn was in the thick of the podium battle in the opening leg and eventually finished fourth, 16.6s behind Breen.

Ogier ended fifth after a lacklustre drive in his Yaris. He never had the pace to match the leading quartet and a disappointing weekend was made worse when he was hit with a 60sec penalty on Saturday night for not fastening his crash helmet strap correctly earlier in the day.

Gus Greensmith completed the top six in a Ford Fiesta.

The WRC returns to asphalt for the penultimate round at RallyRACC Rally de España on 14 – 17 October. The fixture is based in Salou.

Final positions:
1. E Evans / S Martin GBR Toyota Yaris 2hr 19min 13.7s
2. O Tänak / M Järveoja EST Hyundai i20 +14.1s
3. C Breen / P Nagle IRL Hyundai i20 +42.2s
4. E Lappi / J Ferm FIN Toyota Yaris +58.8s
5. S Ogier / J Ingrassia FRA Toyota Yaris +2min 54.4s
6. G Greensmith / C Patterson GBR Ford Fiesta +5min 02.3s

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Esapekka Lappi has secured a privately-entered seat in a Toyota Yaris World Rally Car for October’s Rally Finland World Rally Championship event.

The Finnish driver has been absent from the WRC since leaving M-Sport last year. But on Thursday announced his return, in the hope of securing a full-time drive next year.

“It’s our own project so we’re going to rent a car but with mechanics from Toyota Gazoo Racing,” Lappi told WRC.com. “So it’s run by them, but it’s going to be in our own livery.”

The 30-year-old won his home event in 2017 driving a Toyota Yaris in what was only his fourth WRC start. He has since driven for Citroen and M-Sport, but has failed to add further wins to his record.

Lappi is hoping a positive result will lead to a full-time seat next year: “I hope this will help, but that’s why I need to be smart. I want that it will help me and not to destroy these negotiations, so that’s why I don’t want to push myself too much. I don’t want to make any extra pressure on myself.

“I cannot really set any targets for the finish in terms of position. I think we just need to concentrate more on stage times, general speed and improvement during the weekend.

“That’s probably the smartest way to do it because I cannot really predict in which kind of speed I’m going to do on the first day. It’s very hard to understand where we are.

“I’m lacking a bit of routine, that’s very clear. I believe the day of testing will mainly just be to get used to the speed again, to get used to the aero.

“I’m sure that still during the event, at the beginning, I try to understand again how fast you can go in these cars. Probably, or at least I hope, by the weekend we can get up to speed again and hopefully do some good times towards the end of the rally.”

The addition of Lappi means there will be a total of five Yaris cars in Finland, with the four factory cars for championship leader Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans, Kalle Rovanperä and Takamoto Katsuta.

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