Sami Pajari has won Rally Finland, delivering the 200th World Rally Championship victory by a Finnish driver on the 75th anniversary edition of his home event, and turning himself into Elfyn Evans' closest title rival in the process.
The 24-year-old and co-driver Marko Salminen inherited the lead on SS17 when Sebastien Ogier crashed heavily out of first place, then managed the final day carefully over two runs of the 30.02km Himos-Jamsa stage to win by 26.7s from Toyota team-mate Oliver Solberg. It was Pajari's second win in a fortnight after his maiden victory at Rally Estonia, making him the first driver to take both events in the same season.
He was met at the finish by 1981 world champion Ari Vatanen.
"This feels simply amazing," Pajari said. "It was a big thing to take the win in Estonia but home win is always something special. Winning at home has not always been easy for Finns in recent years, but after one really crazy rally we made it. Big thanks first of all to the team but also the fans for all the support."
Asked to weigh the result against the sport's biggest prize, Pajari did not hesitate.
"Winning Rally Finland for me as a Finn, it's also very special, so I would say that to win Rally Finland or become world champion, it's quite equal. It's a massive thing. I wanted to win, of course, but I didn't really expect that."
He becomes the 14th different Finn to win the event in the WRC era.
Toyota locked out the podium and won 18 of the 20 stages, but the manner of it was chaotic. Six of the 11 Rally1 entries went off, four of them rolling. Deputy team principal Juha Kankkunen, a four-time world champion and three-time winner here, said the rally was unlike anything in his experience.
"I've been coming to this rally for over 40 years and I'm not sure if I've ever seen so much action happening," Kankkunen said. "There was a lot for the fans to follow, and a few heart-in-mouth moments for us, but it's a good result for us at the end. Sami drove a fantastic rally once again and it makes me proud to see another Finnish winner of Rally Finland."
Evans completed the lockout in third after rolling on Saturday morning and being rebuilt by his crew in service. He then took the Power Stage by 0.025s from Solberg, the pair having earlier set identical times on the closing stage with the podium order separated by hundredths.
"I'm happy to finish on the podium but I owe this one to the team who fixed the car in service yesterday after my mistake," Evans said. "Congratulations to Sami and Marko; I know how special it feels to win your home rally. There was not a lot between them, us, and Seb and Julien, who I wish a speedy recovery, but they were the ones who didn't falter and very much deserve this win."
Solberg's second place came with a price. He hurt his back in a heavy landing on Sunday and drove the Power Stage in pain.
"I braked so much over the jumps because of the pain, I knew I was going to lose the power stage. I tried my best, but it was not good enough," he said. "I obviously had the motivation to continue, I got painkillers."
Adrien Fourmaux was best of the Hyundais in fourth, having led after Thursday's Harju stage before losing ground in Friday's rain, and then losing concentration on the penultimate test when a bumblebee got trapped in the car. Thierry Neuville took fifth after Takamoto Katsuta ran wide on the final stage, clipped a tree and lost 1m31.8s.
"I was trying to avoid the inside rocks, but there was so much loose," Katsuta said. "What a disastrous weekend. I'm sorry for the team."
Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala underlined the depth of the day by finishing eighth overall and fastest Rally2 runner in a GR Yaris, co-driven by team test driver Juho Hanninen.
"It's an amazing feeling to achieve this result at Rally Finland," Latvala said. "I've been dreaming that I could still do something like this since I stopped driving full-time in the WRC in 2019."
Robert Virves won WRC2, his fourth victory from four starts this year, after Teemu Suninen was handed a 30s penalty for failing to stop at Patrick Enok's accident on SS11. Gil Membrado took the Junior WRC win on the final stage from local favourite Leevi Lassila.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/pajari-lands-finlands-200th-wrc-win-in-toyota-lockout). Visit for full coverage.*