Rally Finland is essentially a home event for Hyundai's main rival Toyota, as the team's base is located in Jyväskylä, and the team has won six of the last seven rallies there. Tänak took one of those Toyota victories when he drove for the team, and also took the non-Toyota one with Hyundai. Last year, however, the Estonian had to retire after a nasty crash during the third stage.

After some strong results, Tänak now lies in first place in the driver's table, with 162 points, one point ahead of Welshman Elfyn Evans (Toyota).

Ahead of the current event, he said: "This rally demands pure performance and is very tough on the cars and teams. Setup is crucial, because the roads are fast and have many jumps. The car has to be placed very precisely on the road."
"The gaps are so small that if something doesn't work and you're off the pace, it's game over," Tänak added.

Three other Estonians are also competing in WRC2: Robert Virves (Škoda), who won the category at his home rally last month, soil; Georg Linnamäe (Toyota), who came second in Estonia, and Romet Jürgenson (Ford), who placed fifth.
Rally Finland covers 20 stages over a total of 307.22 kilometers.

The perfect start for our championship leaders #WRC | #RallyFinland pic.twitter.com/XptFNaVbp0

— FIA World Rally Championship (@OfficialWRC) July 31, 2025

Tänak came fourth in Thursday morning's initial shakedown stage and had earlier held the fastest time. He showed his form on the short opening stage proper in the evening, crossing the finish line of the 2.58-kilometer test in Jyväskylä with a time of 2:04.0, beating teammate Thierry Neuville by 1.3 seconds and veteran driver Sébastien Ogier (Toyota) by 1.5 seconds.

Tänak joked after the stage that he received good advice from his compatriot Virves, who also took the WRC2 lead on the opening stage. "Drive fast. I followed his example and everything went well," Tänak revealed about his fellow Estonian's tip. "We drove cleanly, and now we'll see. Obviously, a challenge awaits us [on Friday], but a good start never hurts."

In the WRC2 class, Virves (2:09.4) was followed by Yohan Rossel (Citröen; +0.7) and veteran Jari-Matti Latvala (Toyota; +1.2). Linnamäe (Toyota) took ninth on the opening stage (+3.5), while Jürgenson (Škoda) shared tenth place with teammate Lauri Joona (+3.6).

The 17.96 km stage two (Laukaa) is already underway at the time of writing.

Three more stages follow before the lunchtime maintenance break, with the four morning stages to be run in reverse after that (Laukaa, Saarikas, Myhinpää, and Ruuhimäki), with the last stage of the day, the short 2.58 km Harju stage, to start at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday brings eight more stages, and the event's last stages, the 23.98 km Ouninpohja stage followed by the Power Stage on the same route, take place Sunday morning to lunchtime.

Five more races follow in the 2025 season, which ends in Saudi Arabia in November.

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