Estonia's Virves wins WRC2 in Finland and takes class lead

The Finnish round of the World Rally Championship ended on Sunday, 2 August, after a highly dramatic event. During the competition, two title favourites, Britain's Elfyn Evans and France's Sébastien Ogier, were involved in serious crashes. Evans managed to stay in the rally and finished third overall, while Ogier and his co-driver spent the night in hospital. They later told fans that, given the severity of the accident, they were feeling normal.

Finnish driver Sami Pajari made the most of his rivals' mistakes and won his home round. Over the four days he took victory on six special stages and finished 27 seconds ahead of Sweden's Oliver Solberg, who came second, and one minute 20 seconds clear of Evans in third place. Pajari claimed his second career win in the top class and his second consecutive WRC round, moving up to second in the drivers' standings. He now trails leader Evans by 30 points.

Estonia's Robert Virves won the WRC2 class in Finland and, with that result, became the leader of that category. In the overall results of the Finnish rally he finished ninth, while in the world championship standings he is in 14th place.

The next round of the World Rally Championship is scheduled for late August in Paraguay.