Pajari takes the lead in Finland following Ogier’s spectacular crash

Reigning world champion Ogier and his stand-in co-driver Julien Ingrassia had been in control of the rally in their Toyota since Friday morning. They appeared to be heading for a commanding third victory at Rally Finland.

The pair were leading by 20.9 seconds when, during the second run of the Västila special stage (SS 17), they veered off the road at high speed and rolled several times into the undergrowth.

Sami Pajari auf dem Weg zum zweiten WM-Lauf-Sieg?

Foto: Red Bull

Both Frenchmen were able to get out of the car unaided and were subsequently taken to Tampere Hospital for a precautionary check-up – Ogier by helicopter, Ingrassia by ambulance.

Juha Kankkunen, deputy team principal at Toyota, confirmed that the team had spoken to Ogier following the crash.

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“Sebastian was mainly in shock, but he hasn’t broken anything,” Kankkunen told Rally-TV.

Following the incident, Pajari took the lead at his home rally and completed the final Leustu special stage without incident. The youngster therefore heads into the final day with a 46.4-second lead over his team-mate Oliver Solberg.

“Today, the whole afternoon was about controlling the pace,” explained Pajari. Following his first World Championship round victory at Rally Estonia two weeks ago, he is now on course for his second consecutive win. Pajari remained cautious, however: “There are still two long special stages to come tomorrow and anything could still happen.”

Sebastien Ogier vor dem spektakulären Zwischenfall

Foto: Red Bull

Elfyn Evans (Toyota), who leads the World Championship standings, finished the day in third place, one minute and 36.3 seconds behind Pajari. The Welshman had also been involved in a spectacular incident involving several rollovers on the Leustu special stage.

Evans had consistently put Ogier under pressure in the first three special stages and won the WP-Parkkola. This allowed him to reduce the gap to the nine-time world champion from 16.3 seconds to 11.6 seconds, before he went off the road on SS14.

Spectators manoeuvred the damaged but still drivable Yaris back onto the special stage. Evans lost more than one minute and 40 seconds in the incident and initially dropped back to fifth place.

Adiran Fourmaux auf Platz vier bester Hyundai-Pilot

Foto: Red Bull

The Toyota mechanics then carried out extensive repairs during the midday service, enabling Evans to rejoin the fray without incurring any time penalties.

In the afternoon, Evans shone with three top-two times and was tied with Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) in third place overall ahead of the day’s final special stage. His stage win at Leustu gave him a 3.8-second lead over Fourmaux.

“I must thank the mechanics wholeheartedly for their work during the lunch break following my big mistake,” said Evans. “More importantly, however, Sébastien and Julien are doing well, and we wish them all the best.”

Pajari had set the pace on Saturday morning, winning the first runs of Päijälä and Västilä and closing the gap on Ogier to 20.9 seconds. Evans’s crash propelled him into second place.

WM-Spitzenreiter Evans trotz Überschlag auf Platz drei

Foto: Red Bull

The Finn continued to apply pressure after the service and won Parkkola 2 and Västilä 2. Ogier briefly countered with a win on Päijälä, but his rally came to an end on the very next special stage.

Solberg sits in a relatively secure second place after a cautious afternoon, whilst Fourmaux remains within striking distance of Evans in fourth place.

Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota) is in fifth place after spending much of Saturday experimenting with setup changes ahead of Super Sunday.

Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) moved up to sixth place on the final special stage, just 1.5 seconds ahead of Josh McErlean (M-Sport Ford), despite suffering a front-left puncture on the Västilä stage.

Martiņs Sesks was another casualty of the eventful Saturday: he rolled his M-Sport Ford Puma spectacularly on the Leustu stage early in the morning. Both he and his co-driver, Renars Francis, escaped unharmed and are expected to be able to compete again on Sunday.

Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala leads the WRC2 category and is eighth overall, ahead of Teemu Suninen (Toyota) and Robert Virves (Škoda).

On Sunday, two runs over the 30.02 km Himos-Jämsä special stage are on the programme, with the second run forming the rally-concluding Wolf Power Stage.