WRC 2026 result after Round 10: Rally Finland

Toyota Gazoo Racing continued its 2026 FIA World Rally Championship campaign with rising young rally star Sami Pajari scoring a superb second WRC victory, this time at home and leading a superb podium lockout for the team. How did this WRC 2026 result on Rally Finland play out, and what other dramas took place? Read on as we review each day’s activities.

WRC 2026: Rally Finland

Rally Finland is widely considered the spiritual home of rallying, and revered as the fastest round with the most vehicle air-time due to its frequent jumps and crests. It also represents home ground to Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team, which has its headquarters just two miles from the service park. This is where each GR Yaris Rally1 vehicle is built.

No doubt encouraged by local crowds, the team has won seven of the eight editions it has contested – most notably being last year’s historic sweep of the top five positions. Coming into this event, Toyota’s five current drivers have each won at least one rally of WRC 2026 season. The quintet also occupied the top five places in the drivers’ standings, and each individual had a genuine chance at winning their respective championship within the five rounds remaining.

Day 1

After a pre-event shakedown the morning before, the 75th anniversary edition of Rally Finland began with comforting – but still supremely challenging – familiarity: the mixed-surface super special held close to the service park.

Elfyn Evans (above) and Sébastien Ogier (co-driven for this round by Julien Ingrassia), both of whom are two-time winners of the event, shared the third-fastest time over the 1.6-mile stage. Takamoto Katsuta, Finnish favourite Sami Pajari, and Oliver Solberg rounded out the top seven, which was covered by less than three seconds.

Day 2

Today’s action moved to the forests north-east of the service park, where four stages were run twice. Ogier (below) made a flying start to the day and won three of the morning’s tests to claim an early rally lead and an advantage of 5.3 seconds. Hometown favourite Pajari won the remaining test to end the morning loop in third. The Finn was then fastest in the afternoon’s first test and rose to second overall.

A forecasted rainstorm arrived just before the start of the second stage of the loop, which was great news for championship leader and road-opener Evans. Running first on the road (normally a disadvantage in dry conditions), the Welshman benefitted from the best of the conditions and won the stage to leapfrog up the rankings. Ogier remained consistently fast through the wet stages and increased his lead to end the day with a 16.3 second advantage over Evans, who himself had climbed another place into second. Pajari finished third and Solberg fourth, while Katsuta tumbled from fourth to eighth as he struggled to see clearly through a misted windscreen.

WRC 2026: Day 3

Day three turned out to be an eventful one. It began with Ogier leading the rally and team-mate Evans a little over 16 seconds behind. But after winning the first stage and reducing the gap to 11.6 seconds over the next two tests, Evans rolled his GR Yaris Rally1 near the end of the final stage of the morning loop. Helpful spectators rallied to their assistance and righted the car so that Evans could continue – albeit now almost two minutes down on Ogier. In the meantime, Pajari had no choice but to pass his team-mate and seize second place. At this point, Pajari decided that the 22.7 second gap between him and Ogier was probably too much to catch, so he simply chose to carry on in a rhythm he felt comfortable with.

However, feeling very much at home in these surroundings, that rhythm was still incredibly fast. Both Pajari and Ogier won stages in the first half of the afternoon, while Evans also performed strongly in his recently repaired car and moved up into third. Then in stage 17 it all went wrong for Ogier, who went off the road in a fast sequence of corners. Although Ogier and co-driver Ingrassia were not seriously injured and able to exit the car unaided, the impact was heavy. The pair were transferred to hospital for examination and remained there overnight for further observation.

As a result, Pajari (above) completed the day in the lead of his home rally, followed 46.4 seconds later by team-mate Solberg. Evans finished third and Katsuta rounded out the top five.

Day 4

We are delighted to report that after staying under observation in hospital overnight, both Ogier and Ingrassia were released in the morning to return home. We wholeheartedly thank the emergency services and medical teams for looking after the pair so well, and all the fans for their well wishes.

Pajari’s inheritance of the lead was also due to the fact that the 24-year-old Finn (above) had already secured six stage wins on this event. But in the back of his mind was the fact that if he won this year’s Rally Finland he would be the 200th Finnish driver to achieve a WRC win, and it would be a home win for the 75th anniversary edition of his home country’s event. So with a 46.4 second buffer between himself and team-mate Solberg, Pajari decided to adopt a safer approach through the final day’s two runs. Needless to say, the last day wasn’t attacked at a leisurely pace – he still finished 26.7 seconds ahead.

Solberg finished second for the second rally in succession with another well-managed drive, and also topped the Super Sunday classification despite experiencing back pain after a heavy landing during the first pass. Evans completed Toyota’s one-two-three podium lockout to further increase our championship lead, while Katsuta (above) finished sixth overall.

WRC 2026 result in Round 10: Rally Finland

WRC 2026 championship: drivers and co-drivers

WRC 2026 championship: manufacturers

WRC 2026: Where next?

Round eleven sees the WRC head across the Atlantic for Rally del Paraguay, which takes place in a little over three weeks’ time on 27-30 August. This is only the second edition of the event since its introduction last year and consists of demanding stages around the city of Encarnación, close to the border with Argentina. The fast roads of this event feature a red clay surface that delivers changeable grip levels.

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