Toyota has entered six factory cars into this year’s Rally Finland, with a record five Rally1 machines and a Rally2 car for team principal Jari-Matti Latvala.
The publication of Rally Finland’s entry list on Friday has revealed that both of Toyota’s part-time world champions, Kalle Rovanperä and Sébastien Ogier, will drive in Jyväskylä alongside full-season regulars Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta and Rally1 debutant Sami Pajari.
Rovanperä’s presence is not a surprise, but Ogier has not competed in Finland since his decision to stop competing full-time at the end of 2021. If Ogier is declared fit enough to take part in Rally Latvia, Finland will mark the third event Rovanperä and Ogier have both started this season – and will be Ogier’s sixth start from nine events.
Latvala meanwhile will start his home round of the World Rally Championship for the second year in succession.
Finishing fifth in a GR Yaris Rally1 alongside co-driver Juho Hänninen in 2023, Latvala will instead contend for WRC2 honors in 2024 – marking the Finn’s first ever world championship start in a Rally2 car.
“I enjoy driving, I have a big passion for motorsport and driving so that’s one of the elements I want to experience again,” Latvala explained.
“But more importantly, we need to get feedback from the car that I can communicate with the customers. We have a big customer base which is getting bigger and bigger all the time, so I can tell the customers how the car is behaving, how it’s working and go more into the details.
“Of course driving on the home event, on home soil, is very special so I’m really excited about it.”
Latvala finished fifth overall on his Rally1 outing last year
Toyota makes up half of Finland’s Rally1 entry list, with M-Sport Ford fielding its two permanent entries Adrien Fourmaux and Grégoire Munster, while Hyundai will use Esapekka Lappi in its third i20 alongside championship contenders Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak.
M-Sport has previously run five Rally1 cars on events before, but some of them were for paying customers.
Latvala’s WRC2 rivals will include a quartet of Toksport Škoda Fabia RS Rally2s driven by Oliver Solberg, Gus Greensmith, Pierre-Louis Loubet and Josh McErlean as well as a whole host of fast Finns including Teemu Suninen, Lauri Joona, Roope Korhonen, Mikko Heikkilä and 2022 WRC2 champion Emil Lindholm.
Citroën pair Yohan Rossel and Nikolay Gryazin will both compete, but not for championship points.
In total, 80 crews have entered Finland with 17 of those contesting Junior WRC which visits Finland for the first time in five years.
