WRC 2025 result after Round 9: Rally Finland

Toyota Gazoo Racing continued its FIA World Rally Championship campaign by celebrating a perfect result on home roads at Rally Finland, where local hero Kalle Rovanperä led an epic top-five lockout for the GR Yaris Rally1. How did this historic WRC 2025 result on high-speed gravels roads play out? Read on as we review each day’s activities.

WRC 2025 result: Rally Finland

The forests of central Finland are considered by many to be the spiritual home of rallying, thanks to the high-speed gravel roads and frequent jumps that delight drivers and fans alike. It’s also home territory for the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team, which is headquartered close to the service park.

Toyota has won six of the last seven editions of Rally Finland, and came into this year’s event with a 52-point lead in the manufacturers’ championship. So it came as no surprise that the team went all-out with a five-strong line-up of GR Yaris Rally1 cars, each piloted by drivers who relish competing on the Finnish stages: local hero and double world champion Kalle Rovanperä, double Finland winner Elfyn Evans, last year’s winner Sébastien Ogier, Finland podium finisher Takamoto Katsuta, and stage-winning home runner Sami Pajari.

This year’s Rally Finland was also chosen as the debut event for the new GR Yaris Rally2 H2 Concept (above) – a development of the experimental car first demonstrated in Europe during Rally Belgium in 2022. Fitted with an internal combustion engine fuelled by compressed hydrogen, the concept delivers near-zero emissions while retaining all the sounds and sensations of a traditional rally car. It vividly illustrates the potential of hydrogen as one of the options for the future of motorsport in a carbon neutral society.

Day 1

Following a warm welcome at the ceremonial start the day before, day one’s shakedowns saw the Toyota crews deliver the fastest times. This was swiftly followed by the usual mixed-surface super special that opened the rally, where Ogier proved to be the leading GR Yaris Rally1 driver.

But the biggest cheers were reserved for the entrance of the GR Yaris Rally2 Concept, driven by Finland’s own four-time world champion and deputy team principal Juha Kankkunen. Co-driving for this event was motoring journalist and TV presenter Richard Hammond.

Day 2

After an extended period of hot weather in Finland, day two’s high-speed forest stages to the north-east started loose and dry before heavy rain arrived for the afternoon loop, leaving a lot of standing water in the rutted tracks. The day began with a stage win for local rising star Pajari, precisely a year on from his maiden fastest time on his Rally1 debut. He repeated that feat on the fourth and final stage of the morning loop, while team-mate and fellow Finn Rovanperä was fastest in the middle two stages.

Rovanperä (above) won the same two stages in the more challenging mixed conditions of the afternoon to conclude the day almost five seconds in the lead. Meanwhile, Katsuta secured his 50th WRC stage win in the first stage of the afternoon and was the next best-placed Toyota in fourth. Pajari finished one place further back, leaving Evans and Ogier in sixth and seventh respectively.

WRC 2025 result: Day 3

The longest day of the rally consisted of two loops of four stages in the forests south-west of the service park. Weather conditions remained mixed after the rainstorms of the day before, which also signalled the end of what had been an unusually long hot and dry spell in Finland.

Rovanperä increased his lead to almost 15 seconds by winning three of the morning’s stages – racking up his 250th WRC stage win in the process. That margin then grew to more than 36 seconds in the afternoon after his nearest pursuers both slowed with loss of tyre pressure in stage 16. Rovanperä’s team-mates Katsuta (above) and Ogier also benefitted from gaining two positions each, now elevated into second and third place respectively. Evans was just 1.5 seconds behind, having been second quickest to Rovanperä across the day, while Pajari completed what had now become a Toyota lockout of the top five places.

Day 4

Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen began the final day with a lead of 36.1 seconds. And with four fellow Toyota drivers providing encouragement from immediately behind, the pair continued to go all-out for a decisive and long-awaited home win. It was a year since they had experienced the heartbreak of crashing out of the lead on the penultimate stage, and it was obvious that Rovanperä was enjoying the improved feeling and speed of this season’s car and tyre package. He concluded the day with his tenth stage win, and topped the Power Stage and Super Sunday classifications for a full haul of 35 points. Not only that, the Finn set a new all-time WRC record for the fastest average speed of 80.5mph.

Katsuta finished second overall and was second-fastest on the Power Stage, to claim his second podium from the last three editions of Rally Finland. He was just under six seconds ahead of last year’s winner Ogier, who in turn was just three seconds ahead of Evans. The Welshman’s efforts over the weekend elevated him back into the lead of the drivers’ championship, however Rovanperä and Ogier are nipping at his heels. Finally, Pajari completed this perfect result for Toyota by finishing fifth. With three stage wins under his belt, it had been one of the young Finn’s strongest Rally1 drives to date.

This win in Rally Finland represented Toyota’s eighth win from nine rallies this season, and puts us 87 points ahead in the manufacturers’ championship. Interestingly, it is only the second time a manufacturer has locked-out the top five places of a WRC round. Lancia was the first to achieve it in Portugal in 1990, and part of that driving team was Juha Kankkunen, who is now deputy team principal of of TGR-WRT.

WRC 2025 result in Round 9: Rally Finland

WRC 2025 championship standings: drivers and co-drivers

WRC 2025 championship standings: manufacturers

WRC 2025: Where next?

The tenth round of the WRC 2025 calendar is Rally Paraguay, the first of two consecutive events in South America. The rally takes place on 28-31 August and it represents the first time the country has hosted a WRC round – so the event is something of an unknown for all parties.

Learn more: How did last year’s WRC end for Toyota?