TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team opened its home round in Jyväskylä with a crowd-pleasing run through the Harju super special. Elfyn Evans and Sébastien Ogier shared third-fastest on the short 2.58 km test, leaving five of the team’s GR YARIS Rally1 cars packed inside the top seven. Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux ended Thursday on top ahead of the forest stages proper.

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team began the 75th anniversary running of Rally Finland where it feels most at home: on the Harju super special in the centre of Jyväskylä, a short walk from the headquarters where its GR YARIS Rally1 cars are built.

The weekend actually got under way earlier on Thursday with the pre-event shakedown over the well-known jumps of Ruuhimäki. There, Takamoto Katsuta posted the fastest time across three runs before the field moved to the mixed-surface Harju stage beside the service park.

A tight opening test

Over the 2.58-kilometre Harju stage, Evans and Ogier — each a two-time previous winner of the event — matched each other for the third-fastest time. Katsuta, Finnish home favourite Sami Pajari and Oliver Solberg completed a top seven separated by less than three seconds, underlining how close the fight is likely to be once the rally reaches the forests.

Ogier lines up this week alongside a familiar face. His long-time former co-driver Julien Ingrassia, with whom he took his first eight world titles, has stepped in at short notice for Vincent Landais, who was unable to travel to Finland for personal reasons.

In the WRC2 category, TGR WRC Challenge Program driver and Jyväskylä local Yuki Yamamoto set the fifth-fastest time in Harju, edging Team Principal and fellow GR Yaris Rally2 driver Jari-Matti Latvala by 0.1 seconds.

Thursday leaderboard

At the end of the opening day it was Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux who led, from team-mate Thierry Neuville by 1.1s. Evans and Ogier sat third and fourth, both 1.2s off the lead, with Katsuta, Pajari and Solberg next up.

“There’s been a great atmosphere already around the city in the last few days and so much support for us,” said Deputy Team Principal Juha Kankkunen. “From tomorrow I think we can anticipate a close fight in the forests: all our drivers have the speed to win this rally, but we also expect to be pushed hard by our rivals.”

Evans, who leads the road into Friday’s stages, is treating the weekend as a farewell of sorts. “This is a brilliant event and we want to make the most of our last opportunity to drive these roads with this generation of car,” he said, noting that midweek rain followed by sunshine had left the surface hard to read.

For Solberg, contesting Rally Finland for the first time as a TGR-WRT driver, the priority is a clean run. “I made a few mistakes in this Harju stage and didn’t have the best feeling with the mixed surface, but we just have to be awake tomorrow morning and be ready to push flat-out,” he said.

What it means

With the works crews so tightly bunched behind the two Hyundais, the outcome will hinge on Friday’s much longer loop north-east of Jyväskylä. Four stages run twice — the reversed Laukaa classic, a returning Saarikas and the new Sydänmaa and Hoho tests — plus a second pass of Harju add up to 127.72 competitive kilometres, the longest day of the event.

Facts: Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 at Rally Finland

  • Event: Rally Finland, round 10 of the 2026 WRC (75th anniversary edition)
  • Opening stage: Harju super special, 2.58 km, mixed surface
  • Evans / Ogier: joint third-fastest in Harju
  • Thursday order: 1 Fourmaux (Hyundai); 2 Neuville (Hyundai) +1.1s; 3 Evans +1.2s; 4 Ogier +1.2s; 5 Katsuta +1.8s; 6 Pajari +1.9s; 7 Solberg +2.9s
  • Friday: four stages run twice plus a further Harju pass, 127.72 competitive km

Competitive action resumes on Friday with the run into the forests around Jyväskylä.

Source: newsroom.toyota.eu