Sainz's Call Inspires Membrado to Dramatic Finland Win

As the lights went out in Finland, few believed a Spanish driver could conquer a route long dominated by Nordics. But Gil Membrado had a secret weapon: a phone call from Carlos Sainz.

Membrado, the only Spanish entry in the 61-car field at Rally Finland, trailed Leevi Lassila by 3.2 seconds after 19 of 20 stages, having just lost 12.1s on the first pass of Himos-Jamsa. With one stage remaining, hopes seemed slim. Yet it was then that Sainz, who in 1990 became the first non-Nordic winner here, delivered a pep talk over the phone.

“I received a last-minute call with Carlos before the last stage,” Membrado told DirtFish. “He said to me: ‘You have to push, you have to go through there.’ And so we did it.”

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Membrado attacked the final stage aggressively. Out of the car, he immediately checked his phone for Lassila’s splits. “I was in the stop control, looking at my phone, because I did a good stage. I was five seconds quicker in the last split, but in the last downhill, I had two mistakes and I didn’t know if I would win or not,” he said.

The tension peaked as the official times came in. Membrado won by just two seconds. He sprinted to co-driver Adrian Perez and lifted him into the air. “It’s a really good result for us. Victory, first victory here in Rally Finland, the only Spanish crew in the whole rally, so to take the victory here, it’s very special for us,” he said.

For Lassila, it was despair. But Membrado was gracious: “It was very, very tight with Leevi. He did a really good rally, but two seconds of difference.”

The win leaves Membrado third in the Junior WRC standings, 24 points adrift with one round to go: the double-points finale in Chile. “That’s really good because it’s all open, and no drivers of the Juniors has competed there. So it will be a really good rally, I think,” he admitted.

But whatever happens in Chile, Finland will be remembered as the moment Sainz passed the baton to the next generation. “For sure. I was more confident with his call,” Gil smiled.