Elfyn Evans took his second win of the year at the 2023 Rally Finland as championship leader Kalle Rovanpera crashed out on the Friday of the rally.
Evans, who is second in the championship, won by 39.1 seconds from Thierry Neuville to cut Rovanpera’s championship lead to 25 points, with Neuville also closing the gap to 36 points to cement third in the championship. Takamoto Katsuta finished third for Toyota ahead of Teemu Suninen’s Hyundai as they both registered their best results of the year ahead of Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala on his driving comeback. It was a rally of attrition for the Rally1 cars as Rovanpera, Tanak, Loubet and Lappi all retired, leaving only five finishers in the WRC class.
Oliver Solberg finished sixth overall in his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2, but was not registered to score points in the WRC2 class. This meant that Sami Pajari took his first win in the WRC2 class on home soil by 33.8 seconds ahead of Adrien Fourmaux, with Nikolay Gryazin third. Andreas Mikkelsen fought through technical problems and a puncture to finish fourth and take the provisional championship lead in the WRC2 class. In the WRC3 class, Benjamin Korhola won by 35.6 seconds from Jesse Kallio having built an impressive 40.7 second lead at the end of Saturday in only his second WRC3 rally.
Four rallies left, Rovanpera has a 25 point lead. Can Evans or Neuville stop the 22 year old from claiming his second title?
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