Talbot (1980–81) Toivonen's first season driving for a major car manufacturer's 'works' team was largely a trial year. He started the season by winning the
Arctic Rally in January, In hopes of better results, the team partnered Toivonen with three different co-drivers during the season: Antero Lindqvist, Paul White and Neil Wilson. At the next rally in
Sanremo with Lindqvist, Toivonen finished fifth. In late November, Toivonen, this time partnered by White, surprised both experts and spectators by winning the
Lombard RAC Rally, over four minutes ahead of runner-up
Hannu Mikkola. Neither Toivonen nor Talbot were expected to be competitive in the rally. In an interview published in
Autosport three days before the rally started, Toivonen himself had not expected to challenge for the win: At 24 years and 86 days, he remained the youngest driver to win a WRC event until his countryman
Jari-Matti Latvala won the
2008 Swedish Rally at the age of 22. Latvala stated that "It's a super feeling, it's almost unbelievable. Henri (Toivonen) was one of my idols and secretly I've always wanted to beat his record as the youngest winner." Over 20 years after the 1980 RAC, Paul White (nicknamed "Chalkie" by Toivonen) commented that he still receives questions about the rally and Henri Toivonen. He noted that the Talbot team, run by Des O'Dell and 15 full-time personnel, was much smaller than other works teams and "had to draft in 'mercenary' mechanics to help." Toivonen's results led to another year in the Talbot squad. In the
1981 season, he was signed up for a larger WRC programme and had a new co-driver,
Fred Gallagher, who would later partner
Juha Kankkunen and
Björn Waldegård in a
Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo. Toivonen's
rear-wheel drive Group 2 Sunbeam Lotus was now less competitive against the
Group 4 cars and the all-wheel-drive
Audi Quattro, but despite four retirements, the second places at
Rally Portugal and Sanremo, as well as a fifth place at the
Monte Carlo Rally, resulted in a seventh place overall in the
drivers' world championship. Together with more consistent teammate
Guy Fréquelin, he brought Talbot a surprise
manufacturers' title. He also competed in the last round of the British Open Rally Championship, the Audi Sport International Rally, and won the event. Toivonen's teammates were
Ari Vatanen, who had won the previous year's championship (with Richards as his co-driver), the 1980 and 1982 world champion
Walter Röhrl and
Jimmy McRae, the previous year's British Rally Champion and father of future rally star
Colin McRae. In his
Ascona 400 debut in
Portugal, Toivonen surprised the event favourites by leading the rally before retiring five stages from the finish. He competed in only four more WRC events, but finished on the podium twice, at the
Acropolis Rally and at the
RAC Rally. Toivonen continued with Opel into the
1983 season, now driving the
Manta 400, which took advantage of the new
Group B regulations. Although the Manta was a Group B car, it was underpowered against the likes of the
Audi Quattro A2 and
Lancia 037, which were controlling the world rally scene at the time. Toivonen achieved a win at the
Manx International Rally, a round of the British Open Rally Championship and the European Rally Championship, in the
Isle of Man, at his first attempt. He also finished first at the Mille Pistes rally in France, but the organisers decided to ban the Group B cars halfway through the event. Toivonen and his co-driver, Ian Grindrod, received only a consolation trophy. In late October, Toivonen again competed on the circuits. This time he entered two
sportscar races, driving a
Porsche 956 for
Richard Lloyd Racing in the
European Endurance Championship. He only practiced the car at
Imola and did not race, but in the next race at
Mugello, partnered with
Derek Bell and
Jonathan Palmer, he finished third.
Porsche (1984) SC RS at the 1984 Mille Pistes After a score of ten starts, two podiums, three other top six finishes and five retirements, Toivonen left Opel Team Europe for the
1984 season. He was linked to the lead drive at the
Peugeot Talbot Sport, Peugeot's new factory World Rally Championship team, but eventually signed to drive a
Porsche 911 SC RS for the
Rothmans-sponsored
Porsche factory team in the European Rally Championship. The team was run by
Prodrive, a new motorsport group set up by David Richards, Toivonen's former boss at Opel. His European season with Porsche turned out to be a success. He started with two retirements, a third and a second place, but went on to win five rallies in a row and led the championship from Italian
Lancia driver
Carlo Capone. As Toivonen had a contract with Lancia for the World Rally Championship, and Lancia boss
Cesare Fiorio wanted Capone to win the European title, it was suggested that Fiorio might enter Toivonen in WRC events to keep him away from important ERC rounds. However, Toivonen's title campaign ended in a back injury and a resulting enforced rest that was expected to take up to two months. He missed several events and finished second in the championship behind Capone. Toivonen's WRC contract with
Lancia Martini consisted of five events. Fiorio stated that the team needed another top driver as "Audi will have four top drivers next year so it would be very difficult competing with only two." Toivonen had his
Lancia 037 debut in
Portugal with very limited testing experience: "It has been snowing in Italy every time I have been to try this car, so I don't know its limits." However, similarly to his Opel Ascona 400 debut at the same event two years ago, Toivonen immediately took the lead and set several fastest stage times before retiring. This time the retirement was not caused by a broken clutch, but a mistake and a crash by Toivonen. After a retirement also in
Greece, he finished third in his home event, the 1000 Lakes Rally. These three remained Toivonen's only WRC events of the season as his back injury forced him to miss the Sanremo and RAC rallies. Before Sanremo,
Markku Alén re-signed with Lancia and Fiorio stated he wanted to sign Toivonen with a similar two-year contract, depending on the condition of his back and his contractual situation with Rothmans Porsche, who had claimed Toivonen had already re-signed with them. Toivonen made his comeback from his injuries at the
1000 Lakes Rally in August and finished fourth. He finished third at the next rally in
Sanremo, his final event with the car. The 037 did not suit Toivonen's driving style and had fallen well behind
Audi and
Peugeot in terms of performance, as it was rear-wheel drive and had only compared to the 440 of Peugeot and 500 of Audi. It was replaced by the
Lancia Delta S4 for the final event of the season: the
RAC Rally. The Delta S4 had all-wheel drive and was both
supercharged and
turbocharged, the former increasing power in the middle of the
engine's speed range and the latter boosting power at higher engine speeds. The car could reportedly accelerate from 0 to in 2.3 seconds, on a gravel road. The Delta S4 turned out to be a success. Toivonen won the rally and Alén finished second only 56 seconds behind. Although Toivonen competed in only four world rallies in 1985, his results placed him career-best sixth overall in the championship. The
1986 season started with a dominant win for Toivonen at the
Monte Carlo Rally with new co-driver
Sergio Cresto. Fellow "
Flying Finns"
Timo Salonen and
Hannu Mikkola finished second and third. Toivonen's father,
Pauli Toivonen, had won the event 20 years earlier after ten cars, including the first four to cross the finishing line, were disqualified due to having non-standard headlights. The disqualification had caused an uproar and
Prince Rainier of
Monaco refused to attend the prize-giving ceremony. Henri Toivonen's victory caused his father to comment "now the name of Toivonen has been cleared". The Monte Carlo win made Toivonen the favourite for the title. However, at the
Swedish Rally he retired from the lead due to an engine failure. At the next rally in
Portugal, Joaquim Santos lost control of his
Ford RS200 on a special stage and plunged into the crowd. The accident killed three spectators and injured more than 30. Toivonen along with all the other factory team drivers decided to withdraw from the event, but Lancia disapproved of the retirement.
MTV3 and
ESPN, citing Kankkunen and Fiorio, respectively, looked into the claim a few decades later and came to a skeptical conclusion.
Red Bull explored the story further by interviewing former Lancia manager Ninni Russo, whose connections stated that Toivonen had made a time on the full circuit that "was in the first ten of the F1 cars from their test at Estoril two or three weeks before." Despite the setbacks, Toivonen remained the title favourite with no driver seeming able to match his pace. ==Death==