The weight of expectation from a rally-mad nation had been increasing on Kalle Rovanpera’s shoulders. The mercurial Finn has obliterated records, becoming the youngest-ever winner, world champion, back-to-back champion, and produced jaw-dropping drives. The 24-year-old and co-driver Jonne Halttunen, have seemingly rewritten what is possible in the WRC, but until last weekend Rally Finland had proved to be a ‘white whale’.
Rallying is a national obsession in Finland. Thousands of fervent supporters like nothing more than heading into the forests to cheer a home hero battling through the frighteningly-fast stages known as the “gravel grand prix”. It creates a mountain of pressure for any Finn that crosses the start ramp. But if a driver is lucky enough to conquer it they are immortal in the eyes of the fans.
Household Finnish names such as Hannu Mikkola, Marcus Gronholm, Tommi Makinen, Juha Kankkunen, Ari Vatanen and Markku Alen are among the talents to have won on home soil. Now Rovanpera can finally add his name to a list of 21 Finnish drivers to have earned immortality, and with it he ended an eight-year wait for a home win and his own duck on his fifth attempt in the premier category at Rally Finland.
“I have always said I didn’t think it was super special but it feels super good now,” said Rovanpera after defeating Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta by 39.2s. “With the support from all the Finnish people during the weekend, it already feels like we need to do it for them, and also because the last few years we have been close. To finally do it now it feels super relieving and nice.
“At least the minimum of what I want to achieve in WRC [is done], you can always do more of course, but this is one off the list. For both of us, me and [co-driver] Jonne, we are from Jyvaskyla [where the rally is based], so it is quite special.”
This explosion of euphoria, celebrating on the roof of the car at the rally finish, had been pent up for five years. It hasn’t been a simple journey to Rally Finland nirvana for Rovanpera. It began with a crash, while sitting fourth, on his first attempt in 2021. The next year he finished second to Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, before rolling out of the lead in 2023. Last year Rovanpera had built up a huge lead, only to hit a rock that had been dragged into the road and crashed on the penultimate stage, creating an image of a heartbroken Rovanpera staring at his wrecked GR Yaris.
Rovanpera finally got on top of the Hankook gravel tyres which unlocked his pace to charge to victory
Photo by: Toyota Racing
It is fair to say that Rovanpera wasn’t tipped as the usual favourite to win this year’s edition. Two weeks earlier he delivered blunt admission when his struggles adapting his driving style to the new Hankook’s gravel seemingly hit a nadir in Estonia. Rovanpera finished a lonely fourth in an event he’d previously dominated, which warranted a downbeat “if we cannot do it in Estonia we cannot do it anywhere else”.
However, in the short turnaround Rovanpera and his Toyota team set to work to find a solution for Finland. It meant trying set-ups outside of Rovanpera’s comfort zone. While he didn’t feel 100% easy and admitted his speed was coming in an usual manner, Rovanpera had found something to challenge for victory.
“It is not usually the way I do things. Usually when I’m comfortable I’m as fast as I can be but now I just need to go through the uncomfortable side, there seems to be no other option this year,” he said.
The weight of a nation has been lifted as Rovanpera and Halttunen found themselves on the front and back pages of Finland’s national newspapers on Monday morning in celebration instead of despair
A total of 10 stage wins out of 20 doesn’t tell the whole story. Rovanpera had to work hard to open up a 4.9s lead over Thierry Neuville at the end of Friday, but after that he grew in confidence and flickers of the old Kalle were evident after winning three of the four Saturday morning stages – only a rear-right slow puncture prevented a clean sweep.
After surviving the wettest conditions witnessed in Finland for some time, 16.4s separated Rovanpera, Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux. However, front-right punctures within seconds of each other in stage 16 for the Hyundai duo cruelly extinguished their hopes and set up a Toyota top-five lockout.
Last year Rovanpera was staring into the abyss on the side of the road on Sunday. This year he was tearing through arguably WRC’s greatest stage, Ouninpohja, at record 142.7km/h average speed to achieve the victory most coveted by any Finnish rally driver.
Rovanpera’s maiden home win pushed him up to second in the standings
Photo by: Toyota Racing
The weight of a nation has been lifted as Rovanpera and Halttunen found themselves on the front and back pages of Finland’s national newspapers on Monday morning in celebration instead of despair.
“I knew if everything started to go well I still knew how to drive. As a driver it is difficult when you don’t have the pace or the feeling there is not much else you can do. I knew if we could get everything going well we could be fast and luckily we did it this weekend when it was important,” said Rovanpera.
Given the pressure and the context of Rovanpera’s season, this has to be regarded among his greatest victories.
History made as records fall and Toyota dominate
To add further gloss, Rovanpera broke another record by setting the fastest average speed across a rally in WRC history, ending with the phenomenal figure of 129.9km/h.
“Kalle is back at his normal speed and I think he will be a dangerous guy in the championship for the end of the season,” said Toyota deputy team principal Juha Kankkunen. “He has found the confidence in the car and changed the driving style a little bit and changed the set up to something that is a little bit different to what he is used to. But that seems to work very well.”
Toyota also became the first manufacturer to score a 1-2-3-4-5 since Lancia achieved the feat at Rally Portugal in 1990, an accomplishment achieved at Toyota’s home event with the team based a short drive from the Jyvaskyla service park.
“It is an unbelievable result, the last time was 35 years ago so we may not see the next one maybe,” added Kankkunen, who finished third in Portugal for Lancia in 1990. “We also got a 1-2 in the Rally2 class as well with Roope Korhonen beating Jari-Matti Latvala by 1.1s, so this is 100% the best weekend we have had.”
Ogier hasn’t finished off the podium in every WRC start he has made so far in 2025
Photo by: Toyota Racing
Title set for four-way fight as Ogier sets sights on ninth crown
It appears the title race could be one of the most exciting in recent memory with only 13 points separating the top four after Finland. Elfyn Evans regained the championship lead after finishing fourth in what proved to be a difficult weekend, and now has a slender three-point advantage over Rovanpera, who vaulted from fourth to second after his perfect 35-point haul.
“I’m pretty frustrated,” said Evans. “My hands were a bit tied on Friday with this road position. It was then really difficult to fight back on Saturday as the gaps between everyone were so small and it was really hard to make a difference. We lost out big style really [after picking up only three Super Sunday points]. It could be a lot worse but I guess in any other situation you would be happy to be leading at this stage. We have to wait and see.”
If Rovanpera has indeed found a way to achieve speed on gravel, he will be a force in this title race. But perhaps the biggest worry for Evans, Rovanpera and Ott Tanak, now 10 points behind, is the fact Sebastien Ogier appears set to launch a title bid despite contesting a partial campaign.
“I must be very happy with the outcome from the weekend as it wasn’t the easiest of weekends for me in terms of feeling. Now, it is exciting to be part of this four-way fight for the title” Sebastien Ogier
Ogier had battled throughout the rally to find the commitment and sweet spot in his GR Yaris, but a run to third was his sixth podium from six starts. It moved the eight-time world champion three points behind third-placed Ott Tanak in the title race and 13 from the summit.
“I’m definitely very happy for the team and my team-mates starting with Kalle and Jonne who deserve this victory so much,” said Ogier. “It is this kind of moment where I’m simply really happy for them and not frustrated that they beat me. I like what is fair in sport and when people get what they deserve.
“On my side I must also be very happy with the outcome from the weekend as it wasn’t the easiest of weekends for me in terms of feeling. Now, it is exciting to be part of this four-way fight for the title.”
Katsuta picked up his best result since Rally Sweden to ease pressure on his place at Toyota
Photo by: Toyota Racing
Katsuta and Pajari issue timely response under pressure
After Oliver Solberg’s stunning run to victory on his Toyota Rally1 debut in Estonia, the result had heaped pressure on Toyota full-time regulars Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari. Outside of a run to second in Sweden, Katsuta has endured a difficult campaign.
But in Finland, on roads that are familiar having lived in the country for eight years, Katsuta was back to his best and was locked in the battle for victory until Rovanpera pulled away through Saturday and Sunday. While his second-place finish was inherited following punctures for Neuville and Fourmaux, the result provided a needed confidence boost.
“It means a lot. It has been a very stressful and frustrating season. After Sweden I had speed that was clear but I couldn’t deliver the result so I was really frustrated about it,” Katsuta said. “This rally, if you want to win, you have to go flat out everywhere but I was able to manage this situation and it has brought me this result. I think I had more pressure than any other rallies result-wise and speed-wise to show something and bring something. This pressure is hard but I like pressure.”
Likewise, Pajari could have felt even more pressure as the young gun in the Toyota team. If he did, he didn’t show it. Pajari was also in the thick of the fight early on before reducing his risk-taking when the rain hit, while three stage wins on his way to fifth showcased to Toyota what he is capable of.
“He [Oliver] was in a Rally1 car already some years ago so it is a bit of a different story with him. I’m trying to stay with our own plan, which was clearly to learn this year, especially in the first half of the season. Step by step more and more we can think about pushing, I would say it has nothing to do with Oliver,” said Pajari, when asked if he was feeling pressure after Solberg’s win.
Neuville’s title defence effectively over
One major name will be absent from the title race. Hyundai’s Neuville still has a mathematical chance of winning the championship but has admitted that the prospect of defending his crown is more or less over after finishing sixth in Finland.
Neuville’s season has been plagued by misfortune; the most notable being a crash while leading in Sardinia while a puncture robbed the Belgian of the rally lead in Greece. This latest puncture that Neuville labelled his 14th of the season has proven most likely to be terminal for his title hopes, as he slipped to 51 points adrift with five rounds remaining.
Neuville and Fourmaux both suffered rally-wrecking punctures which Hyundai is investigating with Hankook
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
“Everybody knows we deserved more as a crew and as a team but things didn’t go our way, there is not much to say,” said Neuville. “I am past the age where I would go home crying. We have tried all different things between the three cars for the tyres, but the result is always the same. I will push [to get back in the title hunt] but I have very little hopes.”
With all three Hyundais suffering punctures across the weekend, the team will step up investigations, in conjunction with Hankook, to see if there is a solution to reduce the risk of failures during their next test. “We have done a lot of tests to improve the car and the set up but with limited testing we don’t spend enough time knowing and learning the tyres,” Hyundai technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison told Autosport. “This week we will go testing and we are planning to do a lot of work with the tyres to understand them better. It is a new tyre that we had in Kenya and for Estonia and here and the next rally in Paraguay, so we have to learn it a bit better. We will work together with Hankook and the engineers are already looking at the tyres, so the work has started. There is still time before the next rally to understand it better.”
Weekend to forget for Tanak and Solberg
Tanak and Oliver Solberg finished second and first respectively in Estonia two weeks ago but in Finland their momentum was brought to an abrupt halt.
“It was definitely nothing intentional and very unfortunate. I only found out later what had happened and there is nothing I can do other than apologise” Ott Tanak
Tanak headed into the round as the WRC’s in-form driver having moved to the top of the championship after picking up a fourth consecutive podium. Tanak briefly led the rally after winning Thursday’s super special stage but it all went south from there. Opening the road proved a challenge before his rally unravelled on stage seven when he slid into a tree and damaged the cooling system on his i20 N.
In a hurry to avoid his car overheating at the stage end, Tanak left before receiving the signal and collided with a scrutineer causing minor injuries. Tanak was issued a five-minute penalty and suspended 35-point deduction.
“It was definitely nothing intentional and very unfortunate. I only found out later what had happened and there is nothing I can do other than apologise,” said Tanak.
Tanak failed to build on his recent momentum in Finland
Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport
Tanak did salvage a point after team-mate Fourmaux retired on the final stage after suffering another puncture. Tanak was however incredibly fortunate to make the finish when his front left tyre delaminated, sending the Estonian into a high-speed spin, and somehow he avoided clattering into the trees.
“It was a tough one but hopefully that is all bad luck in the same weekend and now we are going back to rough gravel and our pace is better. I’m looking forward to next one. It is all to play for [in the championship], nothing too critical,” he added.
Rally Estonia winner Solberg found readjusting back to his Rally2 spec GR Yaris a challenge after his triumphant Rally1 return in Estonia. But there was nothing he could do to avoid a rock that put him out of WRC2 fight on Friday. “It just kicked the car out of the ruts and sent us to the ditch. It’s tough when this kind of thing happens. The sport can give you some incredible high moments, but it can also hurt you a little bit,” said Solberg.
Solberg had a big bump back down to earth as he crashed out at Rally Finland
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
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