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Sami Pajari wins Rally Finland again as Toyota Gazoo Racing locks strong points at home
The Apex Times

THE APEX TIMES

Business/The Apex Times/Aug 2, 11:16 PM EDT

Sami Pajari wins Rally Finland again as Toyota Gazoo Racing locks strong points at home

The 24-year-old Flying Finn takes back-to-back WRC victories for TGR-WRT on his home roads, extending Toyota’s lead in the manufacturers standings ahead of the next round in Paraguay.

4 min readEditor-approved Apex article

Sami Pajari kept Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team on a roll at Rally Finland, winning on home roads for the second successive time and giving the team a dominant finish that also pushed it further ahead in the championship fight. Pajari, 24, and co-driver Marko Salminen claimed the win following their maiden WRC victory at Rally Estonia just two weeks earlier, underscoring a fast rise for a pairing that has quickly found momentum on the world stage.

Rally Finland was the 75th anniversary edition of the event, and Toyota highlighted it as a landmark for Finnish motorsport history, noting it marked the 200th WRC win achieved by a Finnish driver. The victory also came amid a dramatic rally. Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia, reunited for the first time in almost five years in the absence of regular co-driver Vincent Landais, led early through Friday’s forest stages but crashed heavily around SS17 on Saturday.

Ogier and Ingrassia stayed under observation in hospital overnight. Both were released on Sunday morning to return home, the team said, thanking medical staff and fans for support and well wishes. Toyota’s report also emphasized how the rally’s conditions shaped the racing, with challenging weather and changing grip affecting multiple crews over the course of the weekend.

Pajari’s win was built through steady progress rather than late chaos. Toyota said he picked up the lead by the end of Saturday and then extended it by 46.4 seconds heading into the final day. On Sunday, he took a more conservative approach through the two runs of Himos-Jämsa, the rally’s longest stage at 30.02 kilometers, to protect the result and secure the win by 26.7 seconds.

Behind Pajari, Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson finished second for the second straight rally. Toyota attributed their result to a well-managed drive after dropping considerable time on Friday in the most extreme wet conditions. Solberg also topped the Super Sunday classification, though he reported back pain after a heavy landing during the first pass.

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin completed a podium lockout in third place, helping expand Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team’s momentum in the points race. Toyota said Evans had been second overall when they rolled at the end of Saturday morning, but returned to the top three in the afternoon after repairs. On Sunday, Evans was second on Super Sunday and won the Power Stage by a margin of just 0.025 seconds over Solberg. After round 10, Evans led the drivers’ standings with 201 points, Pajari moved up to second on 171 points, and Takamoto Katsuta climbed to third with 160 points.

Toyota also reported that Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston finished sixth overall. Katsuta had lost two minutes with limited visibility during Friday rain but was in position for fifth before a late mistake in the final stage, when they made contact with a tree after loose gravel forced them wide. The event also featured competition beyond Rally1, with team principal Jari-Matti Latvala finishing first in his class and eighth overall in the Rally2 category. Driving the GR Yaris Rally2 with Juho Hänninen as co-driver, Latvala was followed in WRC2 by Teemu Suninen and Janni Hussi, while TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Jaspar Vaher finished fourth in WRC2.

In team remarks published with the result, Akio Toyoda, the TGR-WRT chairman, praised what Toyota described as rapid and extensive repairs by mechanics. Toyota said a rolled car sustained significant damage, but was returned to service within 30 minutes, and that the crew replaced major body components including front and rear bumpers, side panel, bonnet, tailgate, and both headlight and door panels, allowing Elfyn and Scott to rejoin the fight without penalty. Deputy team principal Juha Kankkunen added that Toyota was pleased to take all three podium places at home, while acknowledging there were “heart-in-mouth moments” and commending the drivers and recovery efforts after incidents across the field.

What is still not fully disclosed in the team’s announcement is the specific mechanical or repair timing breakdown behind each car’s readiness beyond the broad service repair described, and whether any additional penalties or technical checks affected final margins. Toyota also did not provide a detailed weather timeline or stage-by-stage split chart in its release, beyond citing the key stages and the size of certain gaps. For the wider championship, the company’s numbers in the report show manufacturers standing up to round 10, with Toyota’s WRT team on 514 points and Hyundai on 340, though full implications depend on how upcoming rounds unfold.

Why It Matters

  • Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Rally Finland performance strengthens its competitive position in both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ standings, with a clear points gap now visible after round 10.
  • Pajari’s back-to-back wins, achieved on home roads, indicate the team has closed the gap on rally consistency, which often becomes the deciding factor during late-season championship runs.
  • The mix of podium results and points from the Power Stage matters because small time margins can translate into meaningful standings differences in the WRC scoring system.
  • Toyota’s emphasis on fast, large-scale mechanical repairs highlights how team capability in service can be as decisive as outright driving pace under WRC conditions.

Sources

Key Facts

  • Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen won Rally Finland for Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team, their second consecutive WRC victory after Rally Estonia.
  • Toyota said Pajari took the lead by the end of Saturday and won by 26.7 seconds after taking a safer approach on Sunday’s Himos-Jämsa stages.
  • Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson finished second, Oliver also topping the Super Sunday classification despite back pain after a heavy landing.
  • Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin finished third and won the Power Stage by 0.025 seconds over Solberg after recovering from a Saturday roll.
  • After round 10, Evans led the drivers’ standings with 201 points, Pajari moved to second with 171, and Takamoto Katsuta was third with 160.
  • Toyota said its World Rally Team increased its manufacturers’ lead to 174 points, with TGR-WRT on 514 points after round 10.

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Sami Pajari wins Rally Finland again as Toyota Gazoo Racing locks strong points at home | The Apex Times