How Ogier’s scary crash opened up Finnish WRC history for Pajari

If you reach the end of Rally Finland and World Rally Championship legend Ari Vatanen rushes to the car and opens the door to celebrate, something special has happened. 

The 1981 world champion’s face was among the first Sami Pajari saw as he and Marko Salminen joined the pantheon of flying Finns to win the ‘gravel grand prix’, in what proved to be a crash-marred 75th anniversary edition. It was the 200th WRC win for a Finnish driver while the 24-year-old Pajari became the 14th Finn to win the event.

In Finnish motorsport it doesn’t get any bigger than a Finn winning Rally Finland. This is the Nordic nation's Super Bowl or World Cup final. The event uses the slogan ‘Home of Rally’ and it's hard to disagree given the thousands upon thousands of rally-obsessed fans that turned out to witness the homecoming and the crowning of a new Finnish rally hero, who had only claimed a maiden WRC win two weeks ago in Estonia. 

"It feels simply amazing. I don't know what to say,” Pajari said shortly after being congratulated by Vatanen at the finish line. “Winning at home has not been so easy for the Finns but after one really crazy rally we made it. Winning Rally Finland for me as a Finn, it's also very special, so I would say that to win Rally Finland or become world champion, it's quite equal. It's a massive thing. I wanted to win, of course, but I didn't really expect that.”

It is fair to say few would have expected what unfolded on a Rally Finland for the ages which featured monsoon rain, inconsistent grip, wild crashes, back injuries, miracle repairs and even an in-car tussle with a bumblebee. A route featuring 66% new stages tested crews to their limit and beyond. Six of the 11 Rally1 field found out what can happen if the limits are overstepped, and four of those would roll their million-euro machinery.

Four-time world champion and three-time Finland winner Juha Kankkunen perhaps summed up the rally the best: “I have been at Rally Finland for over 40 years but I have never seen anything like that, with so many accidents of the top-level cars and then on Friday we even had a big storm.”

Certainly come early Saturday afternoon, the odds on Pajari claiming back-to-back WRC wins seemed long given the form of Sebastien Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia, who accepted a last-minute call to come out of retirement to stand in for Vincent Landais who was absent due to personal reasons. Keen to deliver a strong result for their absent friend, Ogier and Ingrassia quickly gelled after five years apart and appeared on course to claim a famous win, but it wasn’t to be in dramatic circumstances.

Ogier suffered a major crash which has also dented his WRC title hopes

Photo by: Toyota Racing

The reigning world champion won three of the opening four stages on Friday and then survived Friday afternoon’s deluge – that even the hardy drivers felt was enough for officials to throw the red flag – to lead Elfyn Evans by 16.3s. That advantage increased to 22.7s over Pajari after Evans rolled his GR Yaris and lost almost two minutes stuck in a ditch in stage 14. “We are on the edge all the time. I knew they'd [Evans and Pajari] push hard, I want this battle to happen, that's how it's fun. I always kept a little margin and the plan is working,” said Ogier after stage 14. 

Ogier’s risk versus reward was working until stage 17 when approaching a right hander at speed his GR Yaris fired off the road and into a series of scary end over end rolls into the trees. For several minutes there were growing fears for their safety in the service park until news came through that Ogier and Ingrassia exited the car unaided. The stage was cancelled to allow the pair to be transported to hospital for precautionary checks. Luckily the pair were cleared of any injuries, a glowing testament to the strength of the Rally1 car.

Ogier’s exit handed Pajari a unexpected golden ticket to claim the most valuable of victories. Even the Finn admitted that victory seems a long shot after a misted up windscreen cost him 34s during Friday’s downpour. Although Pajari inherited the lead, the 24-year-old deserves huge credit for his performance in a rally that was turned on its head. The pressure of leading a home rally given the weight of expectation from the crowd desperate for success would have been immense. But once again Pajari displayed his ever-growing strength of remaining calm while blocking out the outside noise to focus on the job at hand. Pajari was even able to show his playful side. When asked what it felt like to lead his home rally, he replied “I can’t hear you”, with a smirk on his face.

"The pressure in the home rally is always a little bit different, and I still feel like all the season and all the years before it has prepared me for such things" Sami Pajari

After a hug with Vatanen before the final Power Stage, Pajari duly delivered the victory all Finnish rally fans crave so much. Incredibly, Pajari follows Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta as the second driver this season to score a maiden win and back it up with a second victory in the following round. 

“The pressure in the home rally is always a little bit different, and I still feel like all the season and all the years before it has prepared me for such things. So it's not the first time being in the lead because maybe it happened many times in WRC2, or even smaller categories. It's something that you simply grow into basically,” said Pajari, who is not only a two-time WRC winner but also Evans’ nearest contender in the championship, just 30 points adrift. “But of course every rally is valuable. Every time you can learn something, and it's this season with many podium positions and now we have two wins. I think it has just made me more of a driver, it is like a package.”

Pajari took the win by 26.7s from Toyota team-mate Oliver Solberg, who heroically ended the rally fighting back pain caused by a rough landing from one of the many fearsome jumps. 

For Solberg, a second consecutive podium and Super Sunday win was thoroughly deserved especially after being caught by the worst of the storm on Friday, which resulted in water pouring inside his cabin. “It has been a crazy weekend and a crazy day today. I’m very happy to be here at the finish, on the podium again and to win Super Sunday," said Solberg.

Solberg recovered from losing time in Friday's rain to take second and a handy haul of points

Photo by: Toyota Racing

With Pajari ascending up the championship standings, Ogier’s scary Finland exit and subsequent non-score has left the nine-time world champion’s quest for a record 10th world title hanging in the balance. But the championship was far from anyone’s minds with the focus very much on Ogier’s health until he provided the statement everyone wanted to hear.  

“We both feel OK, which is the most important," posted Ogier on Saturday night. “This is of course not what we had hoped for this weekend, especially after it was going so well. But the main thing is that we are in one piece, therefore a big thank you to the team for building such a strong car. Also I need to thank Julien Ingrassia for taking good care of me immediately after the impact and reassuring my family I am well. We will take some rest now and make sure we are back to full strength soon, and thank you for all the messages we received."

In true Ogier style, he’s not a driver that gives up when there is still a sniff of glory and has already confirmed plans to contest the remaining four rounds of the season, “with only one target: win them all.” Ogier is among the few that could achieve exactly that.

From roll to podium, has Evans’ luck turned?

If you told Evans that he would extend his championship lead to 30 points after he rolled in stage 14, and then got stuck in a ditch, he would never have believed you. But Evans' recovery from roll to finishing third, second in Super Sunday and winning the Power Stage by 0.025s from Solberg, all to secure 24 valuable points, is just another tale from this rally.

“I was happy to have anything really after what happened. I do count myself lucky. There is no question,” Evans told Autosport. “You don't get away with many of them. There is nothing else to say really, of course, driving-wise things were going really well, and things went well afterwards. But of course, it's part of the game to not make mistakes, and obviously we did one, and we're lucky to get away with it.

“Points wise, it's been a really good weekend from that side. In Finland of all places, you would never expect to be able to lose 90 seconds and still be on the podium in Finland. It's mad. It was a surreal set of circumstances. But more than anything we owe thanks to the guys that fixed the car Saturday lunchtime."

For once opening the road on gravel had its advantage as the Welshman avoided the worst of the stormy conditions as he climbed from fifth to second at the end of Friday. 

After a roll Evans dug himself out of a ditch to climb to the podium

Photo by: Toyota Racing

But that hard work was undone by a mistake in stage 14 that required dozens of spectators to help push Evans back on the road. In a twist of fate, Evans crashed at the very spot where his father, 1996 British rally champion Gwyndaf, was spectating. It created a viral image as Gwyndaf rushed to his son’s aid and opened the driver’s door on the GR Yaris much to Elfyn’s shock. “He was spectating there and I happened to pick that spot to go on my roof. It has not happened before and I hope it doesn't happen again,” added Evans.

For Takamoto Katsuta, Evans' nearest rival in the championship heading into Finland, it proved to be a “disaster weekend.” The Japanese slipped to third in the championship as understeer on Friday put the two-time WRC winner on the backfoot. A two-minute loss to a misted up windscreen in the rain followed by a crash on the Power Stage left Katsuta sixth overall and 41 points behind Evans. “Overall it is a very difficult weekend as the expectation was really high as we finished second last year," said Katsuta. 

How rain and a bumblebee derailed Fourmaux

While luck seemed to be on Evans’ side, it was the opposite for Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, whose quest for maiden WRC win continues.

The Frenchman led the Korean marque's charge proving that the i20 N Rally1 could take the fight to Toyota on its home turf. Fourmaux led the rally after winning the opening Harju super special stage on Thursday night and was sitting second, 5.3s behind Ogier after Friday morning’s stages.

"We finished 1m35s from Sami, and we lost 1m25s on him in this rainy stage. I really feel we could fight for the win. But the rain came and changed the game," Adrien Fourmaux 

But once again the rally gods were not shining on Fourmaux as he was among the crews that faced the worst of the storm that hit the afternoon stages, reducing visibility to a bare minimum. Fourmaux even declared that he would have been better off with a boat rather than a car to deal with the standing water. A minute-and-a-half was dropped alone in stage seven as Fourmaux plummeted to sixth. Fourmaux, who was among the few to avoid any other drama throughout the rally, was able to recover back to fourth.

“The rain came, and it was for us, and not the others, and that's all. You can call it bad luck. Maybe it's true,” Fourmaux told Autosport. “But when you look at the time at the end of the rally, we finished 1m35s from Sami, and we lost 1m25s on him in this rainy stage. I really feel we could fight for the win. But the rain came and changed the game." 

There was another bit of bad luck on Sunday as a bumblebee managed to get inside his car for stage 19 that proved to be somewhat of a distraction while flying over crests at 180km/h. “I did not see it for the first like two kilometres and then suddenly it [the bee] appears. It was in front of me then it was on my door. I was trying to kill it, but no. But then suddenly it came on my helmet, near my eye. I tried to remove it and finally it moved away. Then I drove again. The risk is if he bites me there I go into the Power Stage, with only one eye, and the vision is not the same. So [co-driver] Alex was trying to kill it. We braked and then it jumped out. It was crazy. I just had to slow down. It was too risky.”

Crashes prove costly for Neuville and Lappi

Hopes of podiums vanished for Thierry Neuville and Esapekka Lappi after just five stages in what proved to be a brutal Friday.

After a lacklustre Rally Estonia, 2017 Finland winner Lappi admitted he’d never watched so many onboard videos to understand where he was losing time to his rivals. It appeared to pay off as Lappi ended stage three in third, only four seconds from the lead. But on the next test (Sydanmaa) it all came to an abrupt halt in spectacular fashion.

With the roll cage damaged Lappi was forced onto the sidelines for the remainder of the event and it is unclear if the Finn will receive another outing this year. 

In the very next stage Neuville ran slightly wide and hit an object hiding in the ditch which damaged the front left, costing 1m45s. Neuville was also then struck by the monsoon rain on Friday afternoon but was able to recover to fifth by the finish. Neuville said: “It is a decent result considering what happened on Friday. It was honestly bad luck as I just went a little bit wide. It was one stone that damaged the suspension and then the rain came so it made it very challenging. On Sunday I was able to enjoy the day. The rally should be slower, it is the fastest Rally Finland I have ever done.”

McErlean’s clean run earns ‘Puma Cup’

The battle between the M-Sport Ford drivers provided an interesting subplot as Josh McErlean, Jon Armstrong and Martins Sesks traded times. Armstrong was the first Rally1 victim the rally claimed as he lost control in stage three and wedged his Ford Puma in a ditch. The Northern Irishman rejoined the rally on Saturday.

Once he found his feeling Sesks emerged as M-Sport’s leader, climbing to fifth before he then lost control in stage 14 which resulted in an unforgiving series of rolls into the trees. Initially M-Sport thought the damage would be too severe to repair but amazingly Sesks was able to drive the car out of the stage with co-driver Renars Fracis hanging out of the damaged passenger door. M-Sport’s mechanical magicians pulled off a remarkable repair within four hours to allow Sesks to rejoin on Sunday.

McErlean had his own brief scare brushing a haybale in a fast section in stage 17. This came after having to take his hand off the wheel to deploy M-Sport’s rudimentary windscreen de-mister [a selfie stick with a cloth attached] to clean the inside of his Puma’s windscreen during Friday’s storm. While he ultimately lost out in a fight with Neuville, a run to seventh and top M-Sport runner was gratefully received.   

“It has been a crazy rally in terms of accidents and it has been a while since we have seen a Rally1 field have so many big accidents and lots of them arrived on the new stages. It was nice to get a clean result,” said McErlean. “It was a difficult Friday getting caught in that storm and losing over a minute and a half was not so good but we kept in the race. I tried to hold off Thierry, but it was always going to be hard, but it was a nice weekend. It is the last rally like this in these Rally1 cars and it is crazy speeds honestly. I thought last year was quick, and apart from Friday, and if the weather had played ball we would have seen the fastest rally.”

McErlean takes top M-Sport honours on his way to seventh place

Photo by: M-Sport