Sebastian Ogier has taken an unexpected win at Secto Rally Finland after his Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT teammate Kalle Rovanpera crashed out on the penultimate stage of the event, which was leading.
Rovanpera led for nearly every kilometre of the four-day gravel race, round nine of the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship, and with a 45.8-second lead heading into the penultimate stage of the rally, it looked as if Finland was set to complete a seven-year home win. But it all went wrong for the 23-year-old when he hit a rock, knocking his GR Yaris Rally1 Hybrid off the start line and sending it into a rally-ending roll. Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen were uninjured.
There was more drama at the same stage when Rovanpera’s team-mate Elfyn Evans went off the road while chasing Super Sunday points while trying to replace a broken driveshaft he suffered on Friday.
Competing in Finland for the first time since 2021, Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais cleared the wreckage to claim their 61st WRC win, beating Hyundai i20 N Rally 1 Hybrid driver Thierry Neuville by 40.1 seconds. Adrian Furmo, piloting the Ford Puma Rally 1 for the M-Sport Ford squad, was 34.0 seconds behind to take the final podium spot.
“It’s hard to laugh now,” Ogier said after the final. “It’s always nice to win in Finland, but not the way we wanted. I feel really sorry for Kalle and John, they were unlucky with the stones, it’s a shame for them. We were unlucky in Sardinia and lost the last stage, but here we were lucky. That’s motorsport.”
Today’s event shook up the drivers’ championship standings with Ogier, who missed three rallies earlier this year, now up to second. After Ott Tänak and Evans both retired on Friday, the pair dropped to third and fourth respectively.
But the big winner in the title race was Neuville (above). The Belgian, who arrived in Finland eight points clear, now has a buffer of 27 points, extending his Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team’s lead over Toyota in the manufacturers’ championship to 20 points.
“This weekend has been a real roller coaster of emotions,” said Neuville. “We took a smart approach knowing that it would be tough to fight Toyota this weekend. After our team’s issues (Tänak and Esapekka Lappi both crashed on Friday), we knew we had to bring home the points.”
Fourmaux’s third-place result was his fourth podium of the season. The Frenchman (above) finished 34.0 seconds behind Neuville at final control, with Sami Pajari’s Toyota 40.0 seconds behind.
Pajari produced an impressive performance on his top-flight debut alongside co-driver Enni Mälkönen. After a rough start to the rally, which included two spins that resulted in damage to the rear wing on Friday, the Finnish pair claimed their first WRC stage win at Ruuhimäki on Saturday.
Rally2 machines filled out the rest of the top ten. Oliver Solberg won the FIA WRC2 category, taking fifth overall ahead of Jari-Matti Latvala, top FIA WRC2 challengers Lauri Joona, Mikko Heikkilä, Nikolay Gryazin and Georg Linnamäe. Mexico’s Ricardo Triviño won the FIA WRC Masters’ Cup.
Finn Jesse Kallio won the FIA WRC3 race, while FIA rally star Taylor Gill (below) claimed his first FIA Junior WRC win after a rematch outside the top 10. The Australian now sits one point behind teammate Romer Jürgenson, with only the EKO Acropolis Rally Greece next month remaining.
This gravel racing competition, centered around Lamia, will run from September 5th to 8th.
