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WRC Secto Rally Finland 2026

deephouse said:
But liking him now, when he is struggling to get it done, as it really seems he hit a real challenge. And more challenge means fun to watch, so Seb should stay for a while, at least untill he will become worse.
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Me too, the (slightly) human Ogier is more interesting in the big picture.

It's funny, but Toyota potentially has an Ogier problem. Evans is their backbone. They need to bring their youngsters on, Pajari is performing like a first teamer and Solberg ought to get less random. Katsuta can be a fourth car driving for marketing in Japan, but not for manufacturer points. Where is the space for Ogier to part time? Man, what a lovely problem for a team boss to have.

This was a really unhappy weekend around Seb. Vincent Landais had to skip the rally for personal reasons, I don't know what that's about but it can't have been fun for him (all the best, Vincent). I should be posting about how nice it was to see Julien Ingrassia again, but he was in a scary crash. Seb could have won the rally, instead it has pulled the rug from under his season.
 
A good rally, but a few big offs that could have been a lot worse. The Arthur Pelamorgues one was a real biggie.

Pajari: very assured, apart from the 1st stage on Friday when Ogier caught everyone napping he was generally the quickest. Shame he didn’t have more of a go on Sunday, I understood it in Estonia, but now he might regret this one as he didn’t really take many points off Evans.
Solberg: another good solid run, no drama. Unlucky with the rain
Evans: 1st on the road, rolled and lost a bunch of time and still came third with great Sunday points. A massive result for him
Fourmaux: never had the pace to win, but was keeping it in there with consistent times until the rain killed it. Can’t help feel he would have won a rally or two by now if he was in a Toyota.
Neuville: same as previous rallies, a bit anonymous.
Katsuta: expected more from him, crap mistake on PS as well.
McErlean: solid, still not quick enough, but a decent run.
Sesks: shame, decent until he crashed
Armstrong: another mistake. He has speed, but needs to get through a Friday.
Ogier: had it under control, until he didn’t. Still haven’t really seen any footage that shows exactly what happened.
Lappi: not a great two rallies. Slow in Estonia, better here for a few stages and then smashed it to bits.
 
trykmann said:
Funny statistics. Toyota youngsters have all taken 2 wins in a row with Rally1 cars.
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Talking about "funny" (read: sad) statistics - with a massive 6 points earned by McErlean he finally moves ahead of the best Rally2 car in O/A points table. And he is the best Ford. Sesks probably has overcooked himself this year with too high expectations/pressure. Armstrong shines episodically, but as he got the Rally1 drive quite quickly from Rally2, he probably needs more time for development.
 
Armstrong is a driver, who would probably benefit from driving Fiesta Rally2 kit as he has much more experience from that level.

Jürgenson also admitted it was good to have Mille in the team as they were able to share setup information. He was able to make the car more comfortable and push more on the limit. The performance upgrades have made the car faster, but he didn't trust the car enough to push with it in the previous events.
 
trykmann said:
Armstrong is a driver, who would probably benefit from driving Fiesta Rally2 kit as he has much more experience from that level.

Jürgenson also admitted it was good to have Mille in the team as they were able to share setup information. He was able to make the car more comfortable and push more on the limit. The performance upgrades have made the car faster, but he didn't trust the car enough to push with it in the previous events.
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Armstrong was the best other driver in the MI Rally Academy so chosen by them (John Coyne) when he was funding another in Rally1.

Armstrong was never going to turn down this opportunity even though its only for the final year of the Class.

A year in WRC2 was probably the better prospect for his future as he knew the Fiesta well. But he should still be well-set for 2027 in the Fiesta Kit.
 
Also credit to Latvala and Jürgenson who i forgot to mention earlier, great work also by them and yeah pretty interesting interview with Jürgenson where he basically admitted that he would benefit a lot having a teammate instead of driving alone most of the time. Said he lost the confidence at the beginning of the year where they changed the car.

Vaher said he only pushed on the places where he felt he could but mostly took it safe, on saturday tested a lot of different setups. Even more impressive drive then.
trykmann said:
Jürgenson also admitted it was good to have Mille in the team as they were able to share setup information. He was able to make the car more comfortable and push more on the limit. The performance upgrades have made the car faster, but he didn't trust the car enough to push with it in the previous events.
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More stats (based on ewrc data):
- entry list: 61
- (complete) retirement: 13
- super-rally: 7 (and it does not include Evans and Neuville, who had their accidents just before service and survived quite well, and Katsuta as he reached to the finish from the PS)

So around 1/3 of the field crashed out.
 
Fast-Eddie said:
Was this Rally Finland too fast ?

dirtfish.com

Was Rally Finland too fast this year? – DirtFish

WRC – Thierry Neuville felt the stages were too quick, but others didn't agree
dirtfish.com dirtfish.com

An interesting mix of comments from the drivers. I especially like Armstrong's about the length of rallies nowadays mean it has to be flat-out everywhere and more risks taken.
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I have not heard so much enjoyment from stage-end interviews as I did in Estonia and now even more in Finland - when a driver reaches the finish line and comes with comments like "what a stage! I really enjoyed it". Neuville has never been a fan of fast stuff and is expressing his opinion. So - it is just Neuville's opinion, not a problem to solve.

But "the problem" will be solved anyway with slower cars...
 
meh said:
I have not heard so much enjoyment from stage-end interviews as I did in Estonia and now even more in Finland - when a driver reaches the finish line and comes with comments like "what a stage! I really enjoyed it". Neuville has never been a fan of fast stuff and is expressing his opinion. So - it is just Neuville's opinion, not a problem to solve.

But "the problem" will be solved anyway with slower cars...
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And yet he is doing usually well on this event (Neuville)
 
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