Rallying-Pajari takes home win in Finland


Aug 2 (Reuters) - Toyota's ⁠Sami Pajari secured a home win ⁠in Finland on Sunday for his second ‌successive World Rally Championship victory.

Two weeks after a breakthrough first career WRC win in Estonia, Pajari and ​co-driver Marko Salminen finished 26.7 ⁠seconds ahead of teammate ⁠Oliver Solberg.

It was also the 200th WRC win ⁠by ‌a Finnish driver, coming in the 75th edition of an event ⁠that started out as the 1,000 Lakes ​Rally in ‌1951.

"It was a big thing to ⁠take the ​win in Estonia, but a home win is always something special," said Pajari, who inherited ⁠the lead on Saturday when ​teammate and reigning champion Sebastien Ogier crashed out.

Championship leader Elfyn Evans completed a podium sweep for ⁠Toyota, whose team is headquartered in the central Finnish city of Jyvaskyla that hosts the rally.

The Welshman extended his overall lead ​after 10 of 14 rounds ⁠to 30 points over Pajari, who moved ​up to second with Japan's ‌Takamoto Katsuta dropping to ​third and 41 points behind Evans.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)

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