Tänak's win in Greece at the end of last month followed by his second place before a home crowd earlier this month has catapulted him to the top of the WRC drivers' table with six rounds to go. The next race is in Finland, starting Thursday and effectively a second home rally for the Estonian.

Toyota technical director Tom Fowler, who worked with the Estonian when he was at Toyota himself, admitted that the Estonian's recent form, since the gravel phase of the season started, is a concern for a team which had been sweeping all before it earlier in the season.

"Since the Portugal rally, I've started to fear Ott Tänak more and more with each event," Fowler said. Tänak was second in Portugal in May, repeating the feat in early June in Sardinia.

"Ott's performances on the last four gravel rallies have been excellent, and only the car has held him back. The real question is whether he can get from the car what he wants," Fowler continued. "His level is pretty scary. We know full well what he's capable of in Finland. We've had several battles in Finland, and I believe every team left Estonia with the understanding that this season and the fight for the world title is only going to get tighter."

Tänak and co-driver Martin Järveoja's sole WRC title to date came back in 2019, with Toyota. Since then, the pair have had their ups and downs with Hyundai, punctuated by one season with M-Sport Ford.

As for this season, the Estonian has collected 105 points in the past four races, with three second-place finishes and the win in Greece. Earlier on in the season he had been down in fifth place, but the recent form allowed him to leapfrog all competitors, including Toyota's Elfyn Evans (Wales), hungry for his maiden title and at one point 35 points clear at the top.

Admittedly the Welshman is only one point behind the Estonian – the latter on 162 points going into Rally Finland weekend, while Toyota drivers make up the third and fourth places too, in veteran eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier (France) and 2022 and 2023 world champion Kalle Rovanperä (Finland), on 141 points and 138 points respectively. Tänaks' teammate at Hyundai and reigning world champion Thierry Neuville (Belgium) is in fifth place with 114 points.

Finland is essentially a home race for Toyota, too, however, since the Japanese car giant's rally arm is based in Jyväskylä, in the rallying heart of a famed rallying country. Toyota have won six out of the last WRC seven rallies held in Estonia's northern neighbor, though one of those wins was Tänak's when he was at Toyota, and the non-Toyota win came courtesy of... Tänak in the Hyundai i20, in 2022.

Rally Finland runs Thursday to Sunday. Five more races follow, two in South America in late August (Paraguay) and mid-September (Chile), a final European round in Germany, the Central European Rally, in October, with the last two rounds in November being in Japan and Saudi Arabia.