Henri Pauli Toivonen (25 August 1956 – 2 May 1986) was a Finnish rally driver born in Jyväskylä, the home of Rally Finland. His father, Pauli Toivonen, was the 1968 European Rally Champion for Porsche and his brother, Harri Toivonen, became a professional circuit racer.

Toivonen's first World Rally Championship victory came with a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus at the 1980 Lombard RAC Rally in Great Britain, just after his 24th birthday. He had the record of being the youngest driver ever to win a world rally until his countryman Jari-Matti Latvala won the 2008 Swedish Rally at the age of 22. After driving for Opel and Porsche, Toivonen was signed by Lancia. Despite nearly ending up paralysed at the Rally Costa Smeralda early in 1985, he returned to rallying later that year. He won the last event of the season, the RAC Rally, as well as the 1986 season opener, the Monte Carlo Rally, which his father had won exactly 20 years earlier.

Toivonen, driving a Lancia Delta S4, died in an accident on 2 May 1986 while leading the Tour de Corse rally in Corsica. His American co-driver, Sergio Cresto, also died when the Lancia plunged down a ravine and exploded. The fatal accident had no close witnesses and the only remains of the car were the merely blackened spaceframe, making it impossible to determine the cause of the accident. Within hours of the accident, Jean-Marie Balestre, then President of the FISA, had banned the powerful Group B rally cars from competing the following season, ending rallying's popular supercar era.

Sergio Cresto (USA) (January 19, 1956 – May 2, 1986) was the co-driver of Henri Toivonen at the Lancia Martini team for the 1986 World Rally Championship season. He was also a former co-driver for fellow Lancia employee, the Italian driver Attilio Bettega.

Sergio Cresto, was born in New York on 19 January 1956. As an Italian American (American citizen of Italian descent), Cresto lived in Ospedaletti, near Sanremo. He began racing in an Opel Kadett with Gerbino. In 1979, Cresto was Tonino Tognana’s co-driver in an Opel Kadett as well as in the more powerful Fiat 131 Abarth two years later. In 1981, Cresto and Tognana came in 8th in the Italian Championship. In 1982, Cresto was co-driver with another “top driver", Gianfranco Cunico, in a Fiat Ritmo 130, getting good results. The following year, Cresto again changed drivers and ended the season placing three times at the Italian national level: 6th with Cinotto after the 3rd place finishes at Targa Florio and again at Quattro Regioni in a Lancia 037) 10th with Zanussi (after finishing 2nd at the San Marino Rally in a Lancia 037). With Zanussi, Cresto came in 3rd at Halkidikis as well that year, a European Championship qualifying race. He competed again in the same race the following year with Carlo Capone in a Lancia 037 Tre Gazzelle. After a long successful season and a duel with Toivonen and his Porsche, the Italians eventually won the European Championship. After Perissinot’s accident, Cresto was Bettega’s co-driver for two races qualifying for the World Championship. In 1985, he raced again with Zanussi for Lancia.