How joining Finland’s exclusive club was Evans' true WRC coming-of-age

By his own admission, the fifth World Rally Championship victory of Elfyn Evans' career in Finland last weekend was the drive of his life. Winning five stages in a row and soaking up huge pressure from the Hyundais on the fastest gravel stages around, the Welshman put in a faultless showing that proved what he is truly made of

Tom Howard Oct 4, 2021, 1:24 PM

Upd: Aug 6, 2023, 7:02 PM

In the past 70 years, only eight drivers born outside of Scandinavia have conquered Rally Finland. Such is the unique challenge the spiritual home of rallying presents, that it has traditionally favoured drivers who grew up driving its fast gravel stages. Until 1990, when Carlos Sainz broke through for Toyota, every single iteration of the rally had been won by either a Finn or a Swede.

Now, it’s an exclusive club that also includes Welshman Elfyn Evans.

Evans’ talents have been known for some time, having won Rally GB as long ago as 2017 - and only missing out on his maiden World Rally Championship win earlier that year in Argentina by 0.7 seconds. Upon moving to Toyota for 2020, he won on his second start in Sweden and led the standings into the final round at Monza, only to fall at the final hurdle in a duel with seven-time champion team-mate Sebastien Ogier.

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Author Tom Howard

Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.

After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.

Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.