There were complaints that Rally Estonia was a bit stale in terms of competition on the leaderboard. The same could not be said of Rally Finland.
A dramatic installment of this famous event in 2026 gave us plenty to talk about, so let’s not waste any more time in the introduction and get straight to it.
Here’s what we learned from Rally Finland 2026:
Ogier’s championship bid is on the ropes
First and absolutely foremost, our thoughts are with three members of Ogier’s team: Sébastien himself, and stand-in co-driver Julien Ingrassia, after their scary accident on SS17, and then Vincent Landais for the personal circumstances that meant he missed Rally Finland.
What’s most important is everyone is OK – and it’s testament to the FIA’s relentless work to improve safety that that is the case.
But we can’t ignore the consequence of the incident: Ogier’s bid for number 10 is now looking ropey.
The cruel thing for him is that the situation was poised to be the total opposite. A strong stage win on Friday’s opener moved Ogier into a lead he had completely under control. Who knows what he’d have scored on Super Sunday, but a victory looked to be in the bag.
Instead, he dropped a big fat zero and is now staring down a 62-point deficit with just four rallies left to run. Even for Ogier, that might be asking too much.
Pajari is Evans’ biggest threat
For a man who enjoys doing things quietly, and his own way, Sami Pajari is taking a lot of the limelight these days.
His incredible run of podium finishes was already earning him plaudits, but now the Finn has gone back-to-back by winning Rally Estonia and then his home event, Rally Finland, two weeks later.
He’s the first driver to win both rallies in the same WRC season, but more importantly he’s now Elfyn Evans’ closest challenger in the drivers’ championship – and comfortably so.
Pajari is 30 points adrift of Evans (who extended his advantage for the second successive event) with the next rival 11 points back. More significant, however, is Pajari’s form.
We can’t forget Estonia and Finland are his favorite rallies, but I challenge you to point me towards an event since Monte Carlo where he’s performed badly. Becoming world champion is a big ask, but Pajari’s not exactly lacking in quality right now.
Katsuta’s title bid weakens
Takamoto Katsuta apologizing to his Toyota team was beginning to feel like a thing of the past, but unfortunately the Japanese driver dropped the ball on the powerstage in Finland, made a mistake and cost himself important championship points.
His Rally Finland had already gone awry with understeer struggles on Friday morning’s loop, and then severe demisting issues on the rain-affected SS8 later that same day.
But the consistency that had underpinned Katsuta’s championship challenge is beginning to disappear, and he’ll need to rediscover it quickly if he’s to have any chance of stopping Evans – who is now 41 points ahead.
Lappi’s hard work goes to waste
Esapekka Lappi worked harder than ever before at his laptop in the week between Rally Estonia and Rally Finland to understand why he wasn’t as competitive in Tartu as he felt he should have been.
As a former Rally Finland winner, the Finn wasn’t prepared to let the same happen in Jyväskylä.
The positive is that it worked. Lappi’s speed was far better in Finland: fifth on shakedown and running in the same position overall after three stages.
But then he crashed.
Lappi paid a heavy price for his error, with a damaged rollcage ruling him out of either Saturday or Sunday’s legs. Nevertheless, he exposed himself to that sort of misfortune by making a mistake in the first place.
We don’t know when, or even if, Lappi will be back in a Rally1 car again. Hayden Paddon is in for Paraguay, but Lappi might get a chance in Chile. Let’s hope so, because this would be a sad way for his top-flight career to conclude.
M-Sport pecking order is unclear
Mãrtiņš Sesks is clearly the quickest on fast events. You could argue Jon Armstrong has the most clear potential to achieve more, but Josh McErlean is unquestionably the most dependable just now.
Deciding who the top dog at M-Sport is right now is incredibly difficult.
McErlean’s been on decent form since his breakthrough drive in Greece, finishing as top Puma here and putting himself in the frame in Estonia before an exhaust manifold issue robbed him of any result.
After the high of his Acropolis stage win, Armstrong has made two mistakes on two successive Fridays that have spoiled his events but clearly has more speed than his more Rally1-experienced team-mate.
Sesks meanwhile has little to prove at rallies like Finland but let a top-six (at minimum) finish go begging with a crash on Saturday.
McErlean will be the happiest of the trio after Finland, climbing into the top 10 of the championship standings. But as the WRC heads to South American without Sesks, it’ll be interesting to see how the two Irishmen compare.
Virves has one hand on the WRC2 trophy
Another what we learned column, another victorious entry for Robert Virves.
It’s not a new story anymore, but just to catch you up in case you missed the previous chapters: in every single WRC2 start the Estonian has made this year, he’s won.
Finland was the least straightforward of the lot, with Virves seemingly on course to be beaten by Teemu Suninen before the Finn’s 30s penalty – for not following the correct procedure when passing a crashed car – promoted the Škoda driver back to first.
As he said, he’ll take it.
What’s most important is the championship picture, and with competitors counting five scores from a possible seven toward their final total, Virves is now just one win away from achieving an unbeatable score.
Virves may not even need to win any of his next three starts to secure himself the title depending on the results of others, but either way his destiny is completely in his hands. It would take a fairly special set of circumstances for him not to be crowned WRC2 championship for 2026 from this position.
