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
AnalysisPajari's WRC title bid gains momentumSami Pajari is poised for a World Rally Championship title challenge after consecutive wins, narrowing the gap to Elfyn Evans.
- Analysis
Pajari's WRC title bid gains momentum
Sami Pajari is poised for a World Rally Championship title challenge after consecutive wins, narrowing the gap to Elfyn Evans.
- Analysis
Martins Sesks to debut in rally-raid at Baja Poland
WRC driver Martins Sesks will compete in Baja Poland, marking his first foray into rally-raid with a Latvian-built Viking Challenger.
- Analysis
Latvala wins European Historic Rally in Lahti despite penalty
Finnish rally legend Jari-Matti Latvala secured a dominant victory at the European Historic Rally Championship round in Lahti.
- Analysis
Pajari enters Paraguay in strong WRC Title contention
Finnish driver Sami Pajari heads to Rally Paraguay second in the WRC standings, 30 points behind Elfyn Evans, after two wins.
- Reported
Pajari and Salminen's 'crazy communication' key to WRC success
DirtFish reports on the exceptional, almost telepathic bond between Finnish WRC driver Sami Pajari and co-driver Marko Salminen.
- Reported
Neuville suggests Rally Finland was excessively fast
Thierry Neuville claims the 2026 Rally Finland was "too fast," citing high average speeds and numerous accidents during the event.
- Reported
FIA investigates WRC2 windscreen incident in Greece
An investigation has been launched by the FIA and Acropolis Rally Greece organisers into a WRC2 windscreen shattering incident.
- Reported
Rally Scotland’s 2027 inclusion on WRC calendar looks promising
FIA officials and WRC drivers, including Elfyn Evans, evaluate proposed Rally Scotland for 2027 calendar return.
- Analysis
Sami Pajari secures Rally Finland victory, moves to second in WRC standings
Finnish driver Sami Pajari claimed his second consecutive WRC win at Rally Finland, propelling him to second in the championship standings.
- Analysis
Fourmaux eyes elusive WRC Rally1 victory before regulations change
Adrien Fourmaux aims for a Rally1 win in 2026 before new WRC regulations in 2027, expressing uncertainty about his future.
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 26 August 2026. Remaining dates come from the published WRC schedule. Coverage volumes are 30-day story counts from our own Finnish driver tracking.