RALLY REPORT

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen returned to the top step of the FIA World Rally Championship podium for the first time since last year’s Rally Chile, dominating Rally Islas Canarias with 15 stage victories out of a possible 18 and securing a winning margin of 53.5 seconds.

Toyota was an unstoppable force on round four of the season, locking out the top four places thanks to Rovanperä/Halttunen, eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais, championship leaders Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin, and Takamoto Katusta/Aaron Johnston.

To ensure effective cost control, teams must choose the specification of certain components such as differentials and suspension before beginning a rally: this hurt Hyundai, whose choices in this regard did not work effectively on the smooth, high-speed sections of asphalt roads which are prominent on Gran Canaria. Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria led a Hyundai 5-6-7, with Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja promoted to sixth when Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe suffered a puncture on the penultimate stage of the event.

M-Sport’s drivers encountered a similar fate to those at Hyundai, constantly tweaking car setups as they battled to dial understeer out of their Ford Pumas. Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka narrowly avoided crashing into a tree on Saturday and lost three minutes  in a ditch, eventually finishing 11th; Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy crashed on stage 14, damaging the left-rear of their car and retiring from the rally.

Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand were able to manage the early lead they built over Spanish champions Alejandro Cachón/Borja Rozada for WRC2 class victory. Mattéo Chatillon/Maxence Cornuau secured WRC3 victory; fellow Renault Clio Rally3 runners Arthur Pelamourgues/Bastien Pouget mounted a late charge but ran out of stages to catch the leaders.

FIA spotlight

Nicolas Klinger, FIA Safety Delegate: Rally Islas Canarias made its debut on the FIA World Rally Championship calendar this week. Nicolas Klinger outlines his job in controlling thousands of fans on the popular Spanish island. 

“Everybody knows about the popularity of rallying in Spain and for the sport this is really nice. But for all those people working on the safety side, it can be quite a challenge – this team has risen to the challenge so well.

“We have been working since six months and very closely since February, like weekly meeting, readjusting everything, reviewing last year and previous year’s stages to try to add as many spectator areas as possible and I’m really proud for them. Like I said, there were lots of people coming into the stages even from shakedown on Thursday morning, it was really busy. But everything has been perfect. The volunteers have done a fantastic job, a big thank you to them and to all of the people working on the stages and the safety side.

“We have the help of the Guardia Civil, controlling from the night before the traffic in the stage just to ensure that we have no camper vans or cars not well parked on the stage. All what has been put in place worked.

“The team has worked hard on informing the spectators on social media and through all of the media to tell them: ‘Please, we all want a clean rally and to have everything nice.’ This has happened and this is also thanks to the spectators themselves.

“I can be honest, when I heard about Rally Islas Canarias coming to the FIA World Rally Championship, I was thinking a lot to how we could make this work from spectator control and safety side. It couldn’t have gone better.”

TEAM BY TEAM

Toyota Gazoo Racing

The defending FIA Manufacturers’ Champion dominated the event from start to finish, with Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen winning the first 12 stages. By then the Finns had built an unassailable lead at the top of the timesheets – but that didn’t deter them from dominating Sunday too to secure a maximum 35-point haul.

Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais were back for the first time since Rallye Monte-Carlo and scored an exceptional second place. By his own admission, Ogier struggled to find an answer for his team-mate’s pace. He did, however, stay ahead of the Championship-leading #33 Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 of Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin. The British crew were a trouble-free third, locking out the podium for Toyota Gazoo Racing and extending their world championship lead to 43 points.

The Japanese marque had dreamed of a FIA WRC record-equalling 1-2-3-4-5 finish before Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen crashed out on SS12. Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston bounced back from a disappointing end to last month’s Safari Rally Kenya with fourth place.

Juha Kankkunen, Deputy Team Principal: “It was an incredible performance this weekend, especially from Kalle and Jonne. Kalle was just dominating the whole weekend, but the biggest thanks belongs to the whole team and the work they did in testing before this rally. Our car was just perfect for this rally, and we managed to achieve a 1-2-3-4 which is quite historic. As a driver I was part of that same formation finish for Toyota at Safari Rally Kenya, and we as a team have managed it before but it does not happen very often. Rallying has good days and bad days, but this is a beautiful result.

“A lot of people have talked about Kalle and his start to the season, but this weekend the car just fitted to his hands. I said before the rally that he hasn’t really struggled, it’s just the car is no longer powered by hybrid and his driving style didn’t fit so well at first. I said before the rally: wait, when Kalle finds the fifth gear from the gearbox, it means trouble for the others.”

Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team

One of the team’s more challenging outings in the FIA World Rally Championship. A pre-event test had left the trio of i20 N Rally1s ill-suited to the twists and turns of the Spanish island Tarmac. 

They were never in a position to challenge the front-running Toyotas across the spread of round four and there was little to cheer among the three crews. Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria were generally the fastest of the factory Hyundais – their i20 running with a transmission setup which was generally more favourable for the high-grip surface. After a couple of complicated events in Sweden and Kenya, the Frenchmen took some consolation in leading home their World Championship-winning team-mates Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja and Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe in fifth place.

Tänak and Neuville were happy to see the finish, both talking of the need for refinements to the i20 ahead of the next asphalt outing at Central European Rally (October 16-19). A puncture on the penultimate stage of the rally inhibited Neuville/Wydeaghe’s push to catch Fourmaux for fifth place, falling to seventh place at the finish.

François-Xavier Demaison, Technical Director: “We have gathered lots and lots of good information that will help us improve the car for the future Tarmac rallies but also for the upcoming gravel rallies. It was an intensive test session. We tested many, many things this weekend but obviously we did not get the result we wanted.”

M-Sport Ford World Rally Team

M-Sport prepared a brace of pristine Ford Puma Rally1s for Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka and Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy for the first pure asphalt outing of the season.

Both drivers struggled to dial the Puma into the dry Tarmac and spent much of the first day working through technical solutions to find a more neutral setup for the car. Following overnight changes to the car, Munster’s feeling improved through Saturday morning, before he slid off the road on the middle stage of the Saturday afternoon loop. 

The Luxembourg driver made further evolutions to his setup and was caught out on a right-hander in SS11. He made the finish of the stage and the day, dropping from ninth to 16th, before demonstrating improved pace on Sunday. 

McErlean’s first all-asphalt outing in a Puma Rally1 provided plenty of opportunity for him to take experience and learn – which was exactly what he was doing before he slid wide and hit the barrier on the opening stage of Sunday morning. He retired at the side of the road.

Richard Millener, Team Principal: “First of all, I would like to congratulate the organisers of Rally Islas Canarias on a great event. Stepping up from the FIA European Rally Championship to the WRC requires a significant commitment at every level and the team here has really shown what can be done. We’ve had challenging roads, a great atmosphere and big numbers of spectators – all of whom have been managed very well.

“From our side, both Grég [Munster] and Josh [McErlean] came here looking for experience and there’s no doubt they go away with more comprehensive knowledge of what makes a Rally1 car work on dry asphalt. Naturally, it’s disappointing to see them both caught out – especially for Josh missing more of Sunday’s mileage – but this is a part of the game.”

RALLY RESULTS

1. Kalle Rovanperä / Jonne Halttunen        Toyota GR Yaris Rally1    2;54;39.8 

2. Sébastien Ogier / Vincent Landais        Toyota GR Yaris Rally1    +53.5 

3. Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin            Toyota GR Yaris Rally1    +1;17.1 

4. Takamoto Katsuta / Aaron Johnston        Toyota GR Yaris Rally1    +2;02.9

5. Adrien Fourmaux / Alexandre Coria        Hyundai i20 N Rally1        +2;31.0

6. Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja            Hyundai i20 N Rally1        +3;11.4

7. Thierry Neuville / Martijn Wydaeghe        Hyundai i20 N Rally1        +3;40.7

8. Yohan Rossel / Arnaud Dunand        Citroën C3 Rally2        +7;10.7

9. Alejandro Cachón / Borja Rozada        Toyota GR Yaris Rally2    +7;40.2 

10. Nikolay Gryazin / Konstantin Aleksandrov    Škoda Fabia RS Rally2    +7;58.4

DRIVER QUOTES

Kalle Rovanperä [Toyota], 1st place, said: 

“It has definitely been one of the best weekends we have ever done, because it’s not so often at this level that you can do results like this anymore. Everybody’s going for it and we have just been a bit faster all the time, so I’m really happy. We did a really good preparation on the pacenotes because it was all new stages, but overall it comes from the setup being really good. I probably understood the [new Hankook hard compound] tyre pretty well: no overheating, no pushing against the driving, just driving how the tyre wants to be driven and it worked so well.”

Sébastien Ogier [Toyota], 2nd place, said: 

“The only ones who were very impressive this weekend were Kalle and Jonne [Halttunen]. They’ve done an amazing rally. On my side it’s obviously a pretty good weekend also. After three months without competing, it’s always difficult to be as sharp as you can be but I enjoyed it so much. The car was fun to drive this weekend and we have the perfect result for the team to celebrate.”

Elfyn Evans [Toyota], 3rd place, said: 

“Naturally when you aren’t in a position to fight for the win when you’re in equal machinery, it never feels great. I think in fairness we have made some progress throughout the weekend. The feeling was better today so a big thank you to the team. They’ve prepared us an incredible car to fight while the others have struggled, so big thank you to them.”

Takamoto Katsuta [Toyota], 4th place, said: 

“It’s a great result for the team, a 1-2-3-4 finish. I wanted to bring the car back today after such tough moments we have experienced, so it’s good to finish like this. Huge thanks to the team. It would be nice to finish ahead of one of the guys in front of me, but let’s see on the gravel. I like Portugal.”

Adrien Fourmaux [Hyundai], 5th place, said: 

“There are some positives from the weekend. We are the winner of the ‘Hyundai Cup’, so that’s great! But also during the really difficult rallies you learn a lot and make some steps for the future, so I just hope we will be able to do that. But I am really confident with the team that we can do that. In the end we take some points - it’s not what we wanted, definitely, but the season is still really long so we keep pushing.”

Ott Tänak [Hyundai], 6th place, said: 

“Obviously a very demanding weekend - I think it’s difficult to find the right words. It’s probably the worst we have ever been as a team. We didn’t do our homework, we weren’t prepared and Toyota has set the bar very high, so they did a great job. When the car is not working I struggle to push, to be honest. We will find out where we are in Portugal in a few weeks’ time.”

Thierry Neuville [Hyundai], 7th place, said: 

“It hasn’t been a good weekend, that’s clearly the case and it was visible probably from the outside. We struggled a lot and we need to work harder, that’s for sure. We need to put the finger where it’s painful and come back stronger. We haven’t been lucky with the puncture which we lost a lot with, nevertheless it was good to see the whole team kept fighting hard despite all the struggles.”

Grégoire Munster [M-Sport Ford], 11th place, said: 

“We got something wrong in the beginning which is sealed and we cannot do anything about it. Sometimes that’s how it is, but we never gave up and we tried to find solutions. Although the result of what we tried to achieve isn’t there, we didn’t give up and that’s the most important thing.”

Josh McErlean [M-Sport Ford], DNF, said: 

“It was a difficult weekend for us. From the test we kind of knew we may struggle with understeer, but myself and Grég [Munster, team-mate] were working hard together, sharing ideas about how to perfect the setup. By Saturday we weren’t as lost as we were on Friday, but sadly we were caught out on Sunday morning and had to retire. Sorry to the M-Sport team, the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy and all our supporters.”

Sami Pajari [Toyota], DNF, said: 

“We didn’t get the result we wanted but I can be really pleased with my pace. Compared to the other drivers on some specific stages, we are starting to be really, really close. So for sure, that's really, really cool to see. Unfortunately in SS12 we were a bit too fast in one long corner. I’m not sure what happened because I think I did the same as I did in the morning, but we simply had too much speed and hit the fence.”

Yohan Rossel [Citroën], WRC2 winner, said:

“It always seems easy but it’s never easy. Alejandro Cachón pushed me a lot. I didn’t know the roads before I came here so I didn’t know if I would be able to play for the win. I knew the car could but I wasn't sure about myself, but luckily we were able to do it. Thank you to my team, they deserve that.”

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Drivers’

1    Elfyn Evans        109 points 

2    Kalle Rovanperä    66 points (+4)

3    Thierry Neuville    59 points (-1)

4    Sébastien Ogier    58 points 

5    Ott Tänak        57 points (-2)

6    Adrien Fourmaux    44 points (-1)

7    Takamoto Katsuta    39 points

8    Sami Pajari        19 points 

9    Grégoire Munster    16 points 

=10    Mārtiņš Sesks        8 points 

=10     Gus Greensmith    8 points

=10    Josh McErlean    8 points

=10    Yohan Rossel        8 points

Manufacturers’

1. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT        208 points

2. Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT        157 points

3. M-Sport Ford WRT            58 points

4. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT 2    25 points

Statistics

Stages Won

Kalle Rovanperä    15

Sébastien Ogier    2

Elfyn Evans        1

Adrien Fourmaux    1

Yohan Rossel        1

Stages led

SS1–SS18    Kalle Rovanperä

Accumulated 2025 statistics

Event victories

Elfyn Evans         2

Sébastien Ogier    1

Kalle Rovanperä    1

Stages won

Kalle Rovanpera    20

Elfyn Evans        13

Ott Tanak        12

Sebastien Ogier    8

Adrien Fourmaux    8

Takamoto Katsuta    7

Thierry Neuville    5

Gregoire Munster    2

Yohan Rossel        1

Stages led

Elfyn Evans         33

Kalle Rovanperä    18

Sébastien Ogier    13

Ott Tänak        8

Takamoto Katsuta    2

Thierry Neuville    1

Competitive statistics after round four

74 stages

1,294.62 competitive kilometres covered

13h17m28.9s accumulated time for winner

The weekend in one picture

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen were on flying form to land their first win of the season, the Toyota crew dominating the Las Palmas-based Rally Islas Canarias.