Sebastien Ogier claimed a dramatic victory, Esapekka Lappi emerged as the winner of the Sunday

Kalle Rovanperä’s first-place position was dramatically lost on the second-to-last special stage when he unfortunately went off the road in the final corner of the Sahloinen-Moksi stage. Ogier claimed the victory with a 40.1-second margin over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville. M-Sport’s Adrien Fourmaux rose to third after a turbulent competition.

“It’s hard to smile. It’s always great to win in Finland, but we didn’t want to win like this. We feel very sorry for Kalle and Jonne (Halttunen). This is how motorsport is sometimes. I lost a win in Sardinia due to bad luck and now won by luck,” Ogier admitted.

“Honestly, the whole weekend has been an emotional roller coaster. A challenging race, but we believe our approach was smart. We knew it wouldn’t be easy to fight against the Toyota drivers,” Neuville reported.

Sami Pajari, making his debut in the Toyota Rally1 car, finished fourth in the competition. His first WRC rally in a top-class car included one fastest stage time and several other competitive times.

“Firstly, a big thank you to the Toyota team. This has been an incredible weekend for me. I’ve tried to enjoy it as much as possible. On some stages, we did quite well, and overall, we learned a lot. It’s a big relief to reach the finish,” Pajari said.

Lappi Scores Important Points for the Team

Hyundai’s Esapekka Lappi retired once on Friday but returned to the race on Saturday. On Sunday, he scored full points in the sprint competition, doing great work for his team.

“Whenever you retire, it’s obviously a disappointment. When driving on the limit, anything can happen. We saw in the previous stage that even if you do nothing wrong, you can still end up off the road. I felt very bad for Kalle. I felt physically ill on the transfer when I heard about it. Today we did everything we could. I’m happy with Sunday,” Lappi said.

In the Super Sunday points, Lappi was first by a fraction ahead of Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta. Ogier was third for Sunday, followed by Neuville and Fourmaux. Katsuta won the rally-ending Power Stage ahead of Neuville, Lappi, Fourmaux, and Ogier.

In the drivers’ championship, Neuville leads with 168 points. Ogier moved up to second, but the gap to the Belgian is 27 points. Hyundai’s Ott Tänak, who retired on Friday, is third, four points behind Ogier. Elfyn Evans dropped to fourth.

Toyota appeared to take a strong hold over Hyundai in their home rally, but with Rovanperä’s retirement, the situation changed. With Sunday’s points favoring Hyundai, the Korean manufacturer’s lead over the Japanese brand is now 20 points.

Latvala Second in WRC2 Class

Skoda driver Oliver Solberg won the WRC2 class and impressively finished fifth overall. Solberg led the class from the start and managed to control his lead on Sunday. He finished 39 seconds ahead of Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala.

“It’s a fantastic feeling. It meant a lot to receive congratulations from Jari-Matti. It was great to compete against him, just as he competed against my father. It was a long weekend, but it’s wonderful to win again,” Solberg said.

“It’s been a sad day for Toyota. Motorsport can be brutal sometimes. I feel quite good about finishing second in our first WRC2 race. Last year we were fifth with the Rally1 car and now sixth with this car. Maybe I should drive more, but I’ll have to ask the boss,” Latvala joked.

Lauri Joona secured third place in the WRC2 class after a tough battle with Mikko Heikkilä. The final gap between the two was only 2.6 seconds in Joona’s favor.

“It feels really good. A big thank you to all the supporters. Sunday has been tough because Mikko has been very fast. I had to push hard myself,” Joona said.

Rally Finland results:

Super Sunday results:

Rally Finland Itinerary: