Round 10 of WRC 1998 took the teams to the spiritual home of rallying for the rally that used to be known as the 1000 lakes Rally Finland. Going into this one Tommi Makinen was the bookies favourite for a 5th straight win on the event but Juha Kankkunen the last man other than Makinen to win this rally back in 1993 would have other ideas as would Jarmo Kytölehto who was a guest driver for Subaru for this event having finished 3rd for the previous 2 years. However Carlos Sainz one of the very few non Finnish drivers to have won this event was also on the hunt for back to back wins having won in New Zealand last time out.