Toyota GAZOO Racing World Rally Team arrives at its home round in Jyväskylä with an unusual luxury: all five of its factory drivers have won a rally this season and lock out the top five in the championship. Round 10 of the WRC, the fastest event of the year, runs on July 30–August 2, with Elfyn Evans leading the standings and newly crowned Rally Estonia winner Sami Pajari carrying home-crowd expectations.

Toyota GAZOO Racing World Rally Team (TGR-WRT) returns to the forests of central Finland for round 10 of the FIA World Rally Championship, an event the team treats as its true home fixture. Its headquarters sit in Jyväskylä, just three kilometres (about two miles) from the Rally Finland service park, and the smooth gravel roads with their frequent crests and jumps make this the quickest round on the calendar.

A team on a roll

TGR-WRT has won seven of the eight Rally Finland editions it has contested. Last year it swept the top five positions — a result the team says has been achieved only once before in the WRC — led by a first home win for Kalle Rovanperä. This season the team has a new Finnish talent to celebrate: Sami Pajari, who last week became the 17th Finn to win a WRC round, taking victory on the similarly fast stages of Rally Estonia.

That result means all five factory drivers have now won at least one rally in 2026, and the quintet holds the top five places in the drivers’ standings, separated by just 47 points with five rounds still to run.

The five in contention

Elfyn Evans leads the championship by 25 points and has won Rally Finland twice, in 2021 and 2023 — making the Welshman one of only four foreign drivers to have triumphed here more than once. His nearest rival, Takamoto Katsuta, learned his craft in Jyväskylä through the TGR WRC Challenge Program after moving from Japan, and has finished on the Rally Finland podium twice, third in 2023 and second last year.

Pajari’s Estonia win lifted him to third overall, 33 points off the lead; he was fourth here on his GR Yaris Rally1 debut in 2024 and fifth last year. A further five points back, nine-time world champion Sébastien Ogier is also a two-time Finland winner, while Oliver Solberg — second to Pajari in Estonia — sits nine points behind Ogier and has previously won in WRC2 in Finland.

“It’s remarkable that all five of our drivers have now won rallies this season, and they all still have chances in the championship,” said Team Principal Jari-Matti Latvala. “They’re also all capable of winning Rally Finland, our team’s home event, and I think we can expect a tight fight.”

A strong Rally2 turnout

Latvala himself will again contest his home event in a GR Yaris Rally2 car, co-driven by former TGR-WRT driver Juho Hänninen. In total, 13 GR Yaris Rally2 cars appear on the entry list, including WRC2 championship leader Roope Korhonen — who narrowly beat Latvala to the class win a year ago — and fellow Finnish podium-finisher from Estonia, Teemu Suninen. Customer entries also include Britain’s Gus Greensmith, Finland-based Australian Taylor Gill, and several drivers from the TGR WRC Challenge Program based in Jyväskylä.

The route

The 75th anniversary edition starts in central Jyväskylä on Thursday evening with the traditional mixed-surface Harju stage, which returns to close Friday after two loops in the forests to the north-east. Saturday runs familiar roads to the south-east, and a reworked Himos-Jämsä stage — the longest of the event at 30.02 kilometres (18.65 miles) — is run twice to form Sunday’s finale.

What it means

With the championship’s top five all driving for the same team and covered by fewer than 50 points, Rally Finland is set up as an internal battle as much as a title contest. For Pajari the pressure is fresh: “It’s even more special to be able to compete at home in front of all my family and friends,” he said, while cautioning that the team “can’t underestimate the competition.”

Rally Finland runs from July 30 to August 2, 2026.

Facts: Rally Finland 2026 (round 10)

  • Dates: July 30 – August 2, 2026
  • Base: Jyväskylä, central Finland
  • Surface: gravel (plus mixed-surface Harju stage)
  • Longest stage: Himos-Jämsä, 30.02 km (18.65 miles)
  • TGR-WRT record here: 7 wins from 8 starts
  • Championship: Toyota drivers hold the top five, covered by 47 points

Source: newsroom.toyota.eu