Kalle Rovanpera won his home Rally Finland in record time on Sunday as Toyota swept the top five places and Elfyn Evans went top of the overall standings.
The rally was the fastest in world championship history, with Rovanpera winning for the first time in Finland at an average speed of 129.95kph over the four days and beating teammate Takamoto Katsuta by 39.2 seconds.
Eight-times world champion Sebastien Ogier completed the podium, ahead of Evans and Finland’s Sami Pajari with Hyundai’s reigning champion Thierry Neuville sixth.
Double world champion Rovanpera is now second overall, just three points behind Evans, and back in title contention after nine of 14 rounds.
“We really worked hard for this one, I was driving really on the limit this weekend and really pushing a lot. We really needed the points and it was good at the end,” said Rovanpera, the first Finn to win at home in eight years.
The Toyota sweep was only the second time in world championship history, after Lancia in Portugal in 1990, that a manufacturer had filled the top five places.
Hyundai’s previous championship leader Ott Tanak collected a five-minute penalty on Friday for an incident with a scrutineer and finished 10th, dropping to fourth in the standings.
The next rally is in Paraguay at the end of August.
