Day: 27 April 2025

Well, we came to the final day of this event, and it was all looking very good for Kalle and Jonne to take their first win of the year. Toyota were also set for a lockout of the top four positions as well. Of course, it should be mentioned that Sami and Marko would not be returning to the action after their crash in the penultimate Saturday stage twelve. Once again Greg would open the road throughout the day.

First up was SS14 Agüimes – Santa Lucía 1 – 14.97 km and there was drama from the start as Josh went wide and hit a barrier at a third of a way into the stage. He and Eoin were out on the spot sadly. Kalle was again fastest from Seb and Elfyn.

Next up was SS15 Maspalomas 1 – 13.47 km and Kalle again set the fastest time from Elfyn and Thierry was third. Greg gained another position on the leaderboard moving into eleventh overall and was now fifty-four seconds from tenth placed Nikolay Gryazin.

Onto SS16 Costa Canaria – 1.50 km and it was another mickey mouse stage won by Adrien, whilst Seb and Yohan set the same time to go second and third. These silly stages are not rallying and quite honestly utterly pointless.

Seb was fastest in SS17 Agüimes – Santa Lucía 2 – 14.97 km from Elfyn and Kalle. There was a position change as Ott moved into sixth place at the expense of Thierry who had a puncture and lost almost a minute and a quarter.

Onto the final stage then, SS18 Maspalomas 2[Power Stage] – 13.47 km. The top five in the stage and therefore securing power stage points were, Kalle, Seb, Elfyn, Adrien and Thierry. Kalle had secured victory from Seb and Elfyn. Takamoto was fourth meaning that the Toyota team secured the top four positions.

Let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.

Final Classification – Rally Islas Canarias

1	K. Rovanperä	J. Halttunen	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	2:54:39.8
2	S. Ogier	V. Landais	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	+53.5
3	E. Evans	S. Martin	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	+1:17.1
4	T. Katsuta	A. Johnston	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	+2:02.9
5	A. Fourmaux	A. Coria	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	+2:31.0
6	O. Tänak	M. Järveoja	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	+3:11.4
7	T. Neuville	M. Wydaeghe	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	+3:40.7
8	Y. Rossel	A. Dunand	Citroën C3	+7:10.7
9	A. Cachón	B. Rozada	Toyota GR Yaris	+7:40.2
10	N. Gryazin	K. Aleksandrov	Škoda Fabia RS	+7:58.4

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“It’s been a super weekend for us and also the whole team. To get a 1-2-3-4 result like this again is quite amazing. We have just been enjoying the driving. The car has been super-fast, so a big thanks to the whole team for preparing it so well. Jonne has also been doing a great job and we drove well so it’s probably one of my best wins so far. It’s not so often on this level when you can be so consistently fast through the whole weekend. To get maximum points was our goal today and we really needed that. It’s still a big gap to Elfyn but at least we are now a step closer, and we keep working.”

Sébastien Ogier

“It’s an amazing result for the team to lock out the top four. It doesn’t happen every time and we need to be very happy with that. On our side, second place is not my favourite position but it’s still a good one. I think we drove a pretty good rally. I enjoyed it so much; the car was fun to drive and a big thanks to the team for giving us the best tools this weekend. Kalle and Jonne were untouchable but it’s still a very positive weekend for us, securing maximum points for the team.”

Elfyn Evans

“It’s been a great weekend from the team with an incredible performance from the GR YARIS Rally1. A big thank you to the team who’ve done a great job understanding the challenges of this rally, preparing the car and adapting to the new tyres. A big well done to Kalle because he had pace that nobody else could match this weekend, and well done to Seb also. I’m not wholly satisfied of course to have been a bit behind them and not fight for the win with equal machinery, but it’s still good points and we have to be relatively pleased with that.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“I’m very proud to be part of such an amazing result for the team. A big thanks to everyone in the team for preparing the car so well. It’s been such a nice car to drive all weekend, and this is why we could finish 1-2-3-4 on such a new and different rally that we haven’t been to before. On my side it would have been nice if we could have finished even higher, but it’s been a good rally for us with no big moments, and I will focus now on the next one to keep improving.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Adrien Fourmaux

“While there are some positives from the weekend, such as that amazing final stage and winning our inter-team battle, for sure it is not what we wanted. Sometimes in difficult rallies like this you can learn a lot and take steps forward for the future – I’m confident in the team that we can do that. We managed to take some points, which is good, but we will keep pushing to come back stronger.”

Ott Tänak

“It’s difficult to find the words to describe such a demanding weekend. I think it’s the worst we’ve been across all three crews, with none of us able to compete at the front. It is tricky when it is hot, as I get more understeer, and when the car is not working I really struggled to push. We didn’t do our homework and we weren’t prepared for this event, and Toyota set the bar very high – it was a great job from them.”

Thierry Neuville

“It hasn’t been a good weekend for us. We struggled a lot, and even though we were working hard to fix the situation, everything we tried didn’t seem to work. We still need to put our finger on what has caused these issues for us and come back stronger. Nevertheless, the team kept fighting despite all our struggles; we weren’t lucky with the puncture today, otherwise we might have got a reasonable result. We expected much more from this weekend, and we didn’t get it.”

 

M-Sport Ford

Grégoire Munster

“Although we learnt a lot in our pre-event test, sadly we still got something wrong and once we are here with sealed mechanical components we can’t really do much to try and solve it. Sometimes that’s just how it is, but we never gave up all weekend and we kept trying to find solutions. Certainly, we don’t have the result we wanted to achieve, but we didn’t give up and that’s the most important thing. I’m looking forward to bouncing back on gravel in Portugal in only a couple of weeks.

“Thanks must go out to the organisers for such a well organised event; it is amazing to see how many fans came out to watch us. It made the weekend incredibly enjoyable, even if the stages were a challenge.”

Romet Jürgenson

“The rally on Friday sadly ended quite quickly for us, we missed a whole day and after that it was quite difficult to get the confidence back for Saturday. But once we got out there it got better, and then I think especially on the Power Stage I felt quite ok. There’s a lot more to learn and a lot to improve on, but I think for our second Rally2 event on Tarmac we can be satisfied. It’s just this kind of pure racetrack tarmac, for me, is really new but it has been a really good experience for us.”

Josh McErlean, Retired Sunday

“This island has produced many memories! It’s been difficult from the start; we began to make small progress over the three days with the whole package. It’s a big shame what happened today, a little too ambitious pacenote meant we carried too much speed and ran wide into an armco. I’m sorry for the whole team for this mistake. We have learnt a lot about the car and my own driving this weekend. I look forward to getting back on the gravel now and into more familiar territory, everything should come a little more naturally and we can push on from here.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“Experience and a deeper understanding of how the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 works on dry Tarmac was what we’re all about here. I take much more confidence away from the event.

“Today was really cool, really nice. We were winning a lot of stages, which was great given how close the fight was at the front of the WRC2 class. We’ve worked a lot with the set-up for the car and today showed what’s possible – Elliott and I were really enjoying the driving and having so much fun.

“The whole Printsport team has done such a good job with the car, like always and the same with Elliott on the notes.

“The speed on these roads from these cars is fantastic. What’s also been great this week is the atmosphere. I know we talk a lot about how much we love to see the fans and interact with them on events, but it’s really what our sport’s about – we have to take it to the people.

“On Saturday night, the spectator stage went into the Gran Canaria Arena, and we actually did some donuts in the middle of a basketball court – the whole place was packed with thousands of people. It was just fantastic.

“OK, we didn’t get the chance to actually look and see the faces from the fans, but you could really feel the noise inside the car.

“Now, we turn to the gravel rallies through the middle of the season. Portugal is next and that’s a very, very different event to this one – but definitely one of the highlights of the year.”

Next rally is in Portugal from the 15 to the 18 of May.

2025 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 4

1	E. Evans	109
2	K. Rovanperä	66
3	T. Neuville	59
4	S. Ogier	58
5	O. Tänak	57
6	A. Fourmaux	44
7	T. Katsuta	39
8	S. Pajari	19
9	G. Munster	16
10	M. Sesks	8

 

2025 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After round 4

1	Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team	208
2	Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team	157
3	M-Sport Ford World Rally Team	58
4	Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team 2	25

 

Onto day two then and with 124km’s over seven stages, what would the day hold? The Puma’s of M-Sport would open the road with Josh first into the stages followed by Greg, whilst rally leader Kalle would be last of the top cars to complete.

First up then was SS7 Moya – Gáldar 1 – 24.09 km and Seb was second fastest to Kalle by just one second, whilst Elfyn kept his consistent run going third fastest. Adrien was back to being the fastest of the Hyundai crews going fifth fastest and passing both his teammates and moving into sixth overall.

Next came SS8 Arucas – Firgas – Teror 1 – 13.75 km and Kalle was fastest again from Seb and Elfyn. The three of them continued to hold the podium positions and there were no changes to the top positions at all.

The final morning stage then, SS9 Tejeda – San Mateo 1 – 23.30 km and Kalle continued to dominate the top of the timesheets taking another stage win from Seb and Takamoto this time. Adrien was still the top Hyundai driver, holding sixth. The Frenchman was actually pulling away from his two world champion teammates, who were really struggling.

After the service break came SS10 Moya – Gáldar 2 – 24.09 km and Kalle was fastest from Seb and Sami this time. The times were coming very easily for Kalle and Jonne and no-one could get close.

Next up was SS11 Arucas – Firgas – Teror 2 – 13.75 km and Kalle made it eleven stage wins in a row. Seb and Elfyn remained second and third fastest, just two seconds behind their teammate. There was drama for Greg and Louis who slid wide on a right-hander, and they lost over three minutes whilst some spectators helped them return to them to the road.

The final proper stage then of the day, SS12 Tejeda – San Mateo 2 – 23.30 km and there was some more drama as Sami who was setting a very high pace went wide on a left-hander and collided with a roadside barrier. This led to heavy damage to the right-hand front of the car and put the car out for the remainder of the day. Kalle was fastest from Elfyn this time and Seb was third. Of course, with the retirement of Sami, everyone behind gained a single position with Takamoto now holding fourth place overall.

Finally, to the last stage of the day, SS13 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria – 1.80 km and Elfyn set the pace, eclipsing Seb and Thierry. We finally had a different stage winner, but to be honest these kinds of stages are complete nonsense, and not rallying.

Anyway, let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.

Classification after Day Two

1	K. Rovanperä	J. Halttunen	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	2:22:17.3
2	S. Ogier	V. Landais	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	+45.2
3	E. Evans	S. Martin	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	+1:08.1
4	T. Katsuta	A. Johnston	Toyota GR Yaris Rally1	+1:43.9
5	A. Fourmaux	A. Coria	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	+2:09.6
6	T. Neuville	M. Wydaeghe	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	+2:15.2
7	O. Tänak	M. Järveoja	Hyundai i20 N Rally1	+2:37.3
8	Y. Rossel	A. Dunand	Citroën C3	+5:45.9
9	A. Cachón	B. Rozada	Toyota GR Yaris	+6:04.7
10	J. McErlean	E. Treacy	Ford Puma Rally1	+6:12.3

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“Everything has been going really well again today. The stages had a bit of a different style to yesterday and in the first two I was maybe not so comfortable, but I really enjoyed the third one that was more flowing. The afternoon was especially good: we made some really small changes to the car, and it felt even better, which was nice. I hope we can have the same feeling tomorrow and that everything continues to come comfortably, because we would need to try and take as many points as we can.”

Sébastien Ogier

“It’s been good fun to drive the car on these beautiful roads again today. Again, Kalle has had something more than the rest of us, but I could achieve my main target to be secure in P2. We have been making some good adjustments on the car and the balance has been suiting me better and better. Now we need to continue like this tomorrow, which will be an important day because we need to make use of this pace and collect some more points for the team.”

Elfyn Evans

“This morning the car felt a bit better than yesterday, but we didn’t really seem to gain any time from it. It’s been a bit frustrating not to be fighting closer to the front, but Kalle and Seb have just been a bit faster than us. We were trying to be clean, and the pace was OK. We will try to improve and be ready for tomorrow. You have to try to grab every opportunity for points, so we just have to focus on driving well, doing a good job and trying to bring home some points.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“Today was much better than yesterday. We definitely made a step forward. I was quite happy with the car. I feel sorry for Sami that he had to stop because he was doing a very good job. Now I just need to keep focused tomorrow from the first stage and keep pushing. I hope to find a bit more comfort and a bit more pace, but I don’t think we need to change too much.”

Sami Pajari

“We were having another nice and clean day. The pace was coming naturally, and it was enjoyable in the car. 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 that I did in the morning, but we simply had too much speed and hit the fence. It’s always a pity if things go this way but if we are starting to match the times of the top drivers, then things like this can happen easily. We just need to get back out there tomorrow and try to continue where we left off.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Adrien Fourmaux

“We are still missing some performance, but I was really enjoying this afternoon when the balance was ok on the stages. We don’t really know what to expect tomorrow; it will be a big challenge for us. Everything has to go perfect, and while there are a few things we could change, it is also a gamble. We are certainly going to try everything we can to score as many points as possible.”

Thierry Neuville

“This afternoon went much better than this morning; we had a good balance with the car, and I was starting to enjoy my driving. I think we’ve done a good job, and I’m satisfied with it. While we never stop hoping that we can make up more positions, realistically it will be very difficult to do that tomorrow, but we are going to go for points – there is still a lot to play for.”

Ott Tänak

“The first stage of the loops was the most tricky today, but it was possible to slightly enjoy the second and third stages. The roads are really nice to drive on the inside of the car, although the story from the outside is quite different. We were blind testing some changes, but the engineers had some good ideas, and step by step we were making some improvements.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“What a stage and what a day that was,” smiled the 23-year-old on Saturday night.

“The atmosphere in that final stage – especially the section inside the Arena – was something else. I think everybody knows I love doing a donut, so the chance to do a couple in front of a packed crowd on a basketball court was super cool!

“The rest of the day has been good. We’ve achieved what we wanted: we’re learning lots about this car and what it can do on dry Tarmac. I’m pleased with the progress we’re making – of course we’re not running for points in WRC2 and we’re not at the maximum speed, but we’re taking lots of experience.”

 

Sunday

The final day will see the crew tackle 58km’s over five stages. Kalle looks likely to take his first victory of the year, whilst his teammate, Elfyn is likely to extend his lead in the world championship over his closest rival Thierry.

Let’s see what happens.