Rally and WRC news
The World Rally Championship read from Finland, where six drivers sit in the 2026 table and one of them is second overall. This is the hub for the World Rally Championship, the European series beneath it, and the Finnish crews who move between them.
WRC2, ERC And The Finnish Championship
Finnish entries are spread across four series, and treating them as one story is how most English-language coverage loses the thread. The World Rally Championship is where the title is decided, the European Rally Championship is where Teemu Suninen is making his case for a full-time programme, WRC2 is the class Roope Korhonen and Emil Lindholm contest, and the domestic Finnish series is where almost every name above learned the craft in the first place.
Latest Rally News
AnalysisLappi's Hyundai future uncertain after critical Rally Chile commentsEsapekka Lappi's recent remarks regarding Hyundai's driver selection have cast doubt on his future with the team beyond 2026.
- Reported
BBC secures World Rally championship broadcast rights
The BBC will broadcast the World Rally Championship in the UK from 2027, including live stages and highlights.
- Analysis
Lappi's Hyundai future uncertain after critical Rally Chile comments
Esapekka Lappi's recent remarks regarding Hyundai's driver selection have cast doubt on his future with the team beyond 2026.
- Analysis
Lappi's Hyundai future uncertain after Chile struggle
Finnish driver Esapekka Lappi's WRC prospects with Hyundai are under scrutiny following his challenging Rally Chile performance.
- Confirmed
Lappi confirms Hyundai WRC departure
Esapekka Lappi has officially concluded his WRC tenure with the Hyundai team after Rally Chile, expressing gratitude.
- Analysis
Solberg closes WRC championship gap after Rally Chile win
Oliver Solberg's dominant Rally Chile performance narrows the championship gap to Elfyn Evans, while Toyota extends its lead.
- Analysis
Pajari gains on Evans after challenging Rally Chile
Finnish driver Sami Pajari closed the WRC championship gap to leader Elfyn Evans despite a difficult Rally Chile. Oliver Solberg also gains.
- Analysis
Solberg closes WRC gap on Evans after Rally Chile win
Oliver Solberg significantly reduced the points difference to Elfyn Evans in the World Rally Championship after a strong performance at Rally Chile, while Sami Pajari also gained points.
- Analysis
Solberg holds narrow lead over Evans in Rally Chile
Oliver Solberg leads Elfyn Evans by a slight margin in Rally Chile, with championship contender Sami Pajari in sixth position.
- Confirmed
WRC: increased tyre allocation for Rally Chile confirmed
The FIA has confirmed an increased tyre allocation for Rally Chile, addressing concerns over tyre wear on abrasive gravel stages.
- Analysis
Rovanperä's dream Run video released in Jyväskylä
Kalle Rovanperä’s new drift video, filmed in his hometown of Jyväskylä, is now public after a year of planning.
Why Finland Matters More In Rallying Than In Formula 1
Finland has six World Rally Championship drivers' titles against three Formula 1 world championships, and six Finns are contesting the WRC this season against one on the Formula 1 grid. That ratio is why rallying is not a sideline here, and why the profiles treat a Finn on gravel as a first-class subject rather than as local colour — with the same depth of record on both sides of the sport.
Worth saying plainly what this desk is not: a translation service for wire copy, written up once a year when a home hero wins something.
WRC Championship Standings
The table after Secto Rally Finland, with the bars scaled against the leader, so the gap reads as a picture rather than as arithmetic. Elfyn Evans has been in front since the Swedish snow, and yet the driver closest to him is a Finn in a second-string Toyota entry who was contesting the junior class eighteen months ago, which is not how a World Rally Championship season is supposed to unfold.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Elfyn Evans | Toyota | 201 | |
| 2. | Sami Pajari | Toyota GR WRT2 | 171 | |
| 3. | Takamoto Katsuta | Toyota | 160 | |
| 4. | Oliver Solberg | Toyota | 156 | |
| 5. | Sébastien Ogier | Toyota | 139 | |
| 6. | Adrien Fourmaux | Hyundai | 129 | |
| 7. | Thierry Neuville | Hyundai | 125 | |
| 8. | Esapekka Lappi | Hyundai | 25 | |
The Four WRC Rounds Left
Four rallies decide it, and two of them run on the loose gravel where the World Rally Championship leader has already been beaten once this season, which is the whole reason a thirty-point gap is worth writing about at all. In this sport that margin is a single bad afternoon in the wrong place.
| Order | Event | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Next | Rally del Paraguay | 27–30 August |
| Then | Rally Chile | 10–13 September |
| Then | Rally Italy | 1–4 October |
| Final | Rally Saudi Arabia | 11–14 November |
Every Finn In The 2026 WRC Points
Six Finns have scored WRC points this season. The coverage column is how many stories each generated in the last thirty days, a fair proxy for who the sport is actually talking about.
- P2Sami PajariToyota GR WRT2171 pts39 stories / 30 daysSecond overall, and the only driver still within reach of Evans.
- P8Esapekka LappiHyundai25 pts9 stories / 30 daysA part-season programme, back in the car for Chile after retiring in Finland.
- P22Roope KorhonenRautio Motorsport5 pts2 stories / 30 daysThe junior Toyota watches most closely, scoring on selected rounds.
- P24Jari-Matti LatvalaJML-Sports4 pts5 stories / 30 daysRuns the works Toyota team and still enters events himself.
- P27Teemu SuninenHyundai2 pts16 stories / 30 daysTop of the European table, which is where his 2027 case is being made.
- P30Emil LindholmToksport WRT1 pts1 stories / 30 daysA crash on home stages interrupted a quietly building season.
Rally Results Archive
Stage times and final classifications for every WRC round, kept round by round rather than rebuilt at the end of the season.
- WRC coverage
- WRC2 coverage
- ERC coverage
- Finnish crews and the national series
- Every story, newest first
- The Flying Finns on record
Positions and totals above are the 2026 WRC drivers' table after Secto Rally Finland, checked 22 September 2026. Remaining dates come from the published WRC schedule. Coverage volumes are 30-day story counts from our own Finnish driver tracking.