Category: Tin Top Racing

We came then to the final day of this event and with 77.78km’s over four stages this was not over and with Seb and Vincent returning to the action and opening the road throughout the day, what would they be able to do with the clean roads ahead of them?

First up was SS15 Beyond Borders 1 – 12.37 km and only three crews finished the stage at competitive speed with Seb setting the pace from Josh and Greg. The reason they were the only three crews which completed the stage was because Thierry crashed on the entry onto a bridge just after a sharp left-hand corner. The rest of the crews were given a notional time.

Next up was SS16 Mühltal 1 – 26.52 km the first run through what would be the power stage. Seb was fastest in this one from Elfyn and Kalle. Ott was the best placed Hyundai with the fourth best time and the gap between him and Elfyn came down to just a little over five seconds. The Welshman had started the day well. Meanwhile Kalle continued to hold the lead with no problems.

Now it was back to SS17 Beyond Borders 2 – 12.37 km and the question was would the knowledge of the stage which Seb completed earlier give him the advantage over those who’d not done the stage, but had fresh tyres? Well, the fact was that with Seb going fastest from Kalle and Elfyn it was clear that the knowledge was the key thing. Ott was only seventh fastest and saw the gap between him and Elfyn fall to just 1.1 seconds.

Onto the final stage then, SS18 Mühltal 2[Power Stage] – 26.52 km and Seb would set the pace from Elfyn, Kalle and Takamoto. The Toyota team occupied the full top five in the stage which saw the Toyota take their fifth manufacturers championship in a row. Meanwhile Elfyn’s pace took him ahead of Ott and into second overall as the Estonian was only sixth in the stage.

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

Final Overall Classification – Central European Rally

1 K. Rovanperä J. Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 2:36:20.1 2 E. Evans S. Martin Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +43.7 3 O. Tänak M. Järveoja Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +49.3 4 T. Katsuta A. Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1:06.8 5 A. Fourmaux A. Coria Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +2:04.6 6 S. Pajari M. Salminen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +2:13.9 7 J. McErlean E. Treacy Ford Puma Rally1 +5:48.8 8 O. Solberg E. Edmondson Toyota GR Yaris +8:56.2 9 J. Černý O. Krajča Škoda Fabia RS +10:51.1 10 F. Mareš R. Bucha Toyota GR Yaris +11:21.2

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“Huge congratulations to the whole team, including everybody in the workshop and here in the service park. To win the manufacturers’ championship again proves that we are the best team. Everyone is working super well together, so thank you. It has been a really good weekend for us. It was nice to be back on asphalt and the pace that we had was pretty fast, so we have done a great job together with the team. The drivers’ championship still won’t be easy, but we have at least increased our chances with this result, and we will try to continue like this on the next rally in Japan.”

Elfyn Evans

“I’m overjoyed for this team winning the manufacturers’ championship once again. There’s a massive effort behind this and everybody is working very hard to deliver us the best car and give us the best chances, so I have to say a huge thank you and well done. For me it maybe wasn’t quite the weekend we really hoped for. I think we should have had the potential to do more, so I’m a bit frustrated. It was important to turn things around a bit today and it was a much better day. We managed to grab the second place back from Ott, so I’m happy with how things turned out.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“It’s fantastic that we won the manufacturers’ title again this year. A huge thanks to everybody in the team, they are working so hard, and my team-mates who have done a great job also. For me it has been nice to have a good drive like this here in Central Europe and get a good feeling with the car and the tyres before Rally Japan. I can’t be fully happy and there are still some areas I need to improve, but I will keep working and pushing as much as I can for Rally Japan, which is very important to me.”

Sami Pajari

“A big thank you and congratulations to the team on winning the manufacturers’ championship. It has been quite an OK weekend on my side. I think we had some really good stage times during the weekend. There was also quite a bit of learning still, especially when the conditions were more tricky, but that’s a part of the game for us this season. Overall, I think there are a lot of positive things we can take away from this event, looking towards the next one in Japan and also for the future.”

Sébastien Ogier

“It feels fantastic to win another manufacturers’ title with this team. It’s never easy to keep improving and keep winning but that’s the spirit that this whole team has and I’m very proud of that. We need to celebrate it because nothing ever comes easy, and we will keep pushing and try to continue this success. The car was perfect today, so thank you to the team for fixing it and giving us the tools to recover the maximum points that we could after the incident yesterday. Of course, we would have preferred to come away from this rally with a better result, but we still have a real possibility to fight for the title and we can look forward to the next event in Japan.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“We did everything we could this weekend, and we need to be happy with this outcome. It’s been a tough weekend, we struggled on Friday and gave away a lot, but yesterday we were able to fight back a bit. Today had some very high grip conditions, it was also getting very racy, and we just didn’t have the answer to the Toyotas. I enjoyed the fight, but I didn’t enjoy losing it. We learnt a lot ahead of Japan, so let’s see if we can do some minor changes to improve a bit more.”

Adrien Fourmaux

“We were running well for the first few stages of the rally, but we just didn’t perform well enough on the slippery and bumpy sections. Over the weekend, we made some progress with the flat roads, but we lost time anywhere else. Today was harder, I was fighting the car a lot, but I think we have made some important progress to try and find the right setup for Japan. We still need to work on it, but I’m hoping it’s not going to be the same as this weekend.”

Thierry Neuville

“Martijn and I had quite a big hit this morning. We have completed our medical checks thanks to the ambulance crew and hospital staff who did a great job to make sure we were okay and get us cleared. Everything was normal, and then I made a mistake just before the bridge. It was our mistake; we were too optimistic with a pace note and understeered into the bridge barriers. We know that in rallying the smallest errors can have massive consequences, and that’s what happened today. We will do everything we can to come back stronger in Japan.”

 

M-Sport Ford WRT

Josh McErlean

“It’s been a big learning experience – we’ve had a bit of everything this weekend, running at the front and the back of the field. It was great to see Grégoire back out after his mishap on Friday so we could properly compare times. From the start of the rally to now, we’ve closed that gap to him, and that was one of our main goals coming into this event.”

Grégoire Munster

“It’s not the result we wanted after my mistake on Friday – we landed a jump and broke the suspension, but we had to try something on that stage. Overall, we’ve seen that we’re much closer to the others than we were in Gran Canaria, which is very encouraging. It’s nice to see that even in tricky Tarmac conditions we can be right there with the rest, and I think in Japan we’ll have another opportunity to show that.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“I’m really happy for this one – my first Rally2 win on Tarmac! The Printsport team has done a fantastic job, Elliott has been perfect again and, of course, the Toyota is the perfect car!

“The car has been so consistent for us through the weekend. Even when the weather was a little bit complicated with the rain on Saturday, we could still make everything work. We only drove Canarias on Tarmac with this car before this week, so the experience wasn’t so high for me – but, like I said, the team helped so much to give me so much confidence.”

Arriving at the history-making CER – the first ever world championship round to include competition across three countries in one day – with the WRC2 title sewn up made for a different approach for the 24-year-old.

“It was a little bit strange coming in here,” admitted Oliver. “But Elliott and me wanted to treat this like any other rally and that’s exactly what we did. When you start the event, you put your head down and do your job – this is what we’ve done all year. I’m so proud of what we have achieved.”

Summary

Well, it’s been a great drive by Kalle and Jonne this weekend. They took the most stage wins, kept the mistakes to a minimum and took a very good win. They have brought themselves right back into the championship fight. They remain third in the championship but are on the same points as Seb and Vincent.

 

Elfyn and Scott had their moments of pace and kept it safe when they didn’t feel it was the right thing to do. The penalty on Friday certainly didn’t help but they held their nerve and took a well-deserved second overall which put them back into the lead of the championship.

 

Ott and Martin did enough to take third place after their teammates either made mistakes or just did not have good enough pace throughout the whole weekend to be able to deliver a strong result. They almost had enough for second overall but didn’t have the pace to hold off Elfyn and Scott.

Next up is Rally Japan for the thirteenth round of this year’s championship over the sixth to ninth of November.

2025 FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers’ Standings
After round 12

1 E. Evans 247 2 S. Ogier 234 3 K. Rovanperä 234 4 O. Tänak 197 5 T. Neuville 166 6 T. Katsuta 110 7 A. Fourmaux 96 8 S. Pajari 79 9 O. Solberg 64 10 J. McErlean 26

 

 

2025 FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers’ Standings
After round 12

1 Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team 632 2 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 464 3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 176 4 Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team 2 127

Onto the second day of the rally and with 103km’s over six stages the crews had an interesting challenge ahead of them. Four of the stages were run in Czech Republic with the first and last stages in Germany. Seb of course was leading Kalle by just six tenths of a second coming into Saturday’s action.

 

First up was SS9 Made in FRG 1 – 14.30 km and Kalle was fastest from Ott and Seb. The Finns pace took him ahead of his teammate and into the lead. There was some drama in the early part of the stage as Greg had a spin.

 

Into SS10 Keply 1 – 21.95 km and Kalle took another fastest time from Elfyn and Ott. There was big drama for Seb and Vincent though. Just before 17 or so kilometres the car understeered on a right-hander before hitting a bank on the left-hand side of the road, then colliding with a small tree which then spun the car 180 degrees, the result of which meant the Yaris was damaged on the left-hand side with the front wheel and suspension pulled out. He was frustrated, angry and out for the rest of the day. The team would need to check the car when it arrived back at the service to be sure they could restart on Sunday. Also having a moment was Greg, although at least they were able to continue.

 

The final morning stage then before the tyre fitting zone and Takamoto was fastest from Ott and Kalle. Elfyn was fourth fastest and lost a little bit of time to Ott as the Estonian moved a little closer to passing the Welshman.

 

After the break, SS12 Keply 2 – 21.95 km was next and Ott was fastest from Kalle and Elfyn. There was a position change as Ott moved ahead of Elfyn and into second place. Further back Greg was showing some good pace setting the seventh best time even ahead of Sami in this one. His teammate Josh was continuing to run well inside the top ten, holding eighth position.

Onto the penultimate stage then, SS13 Klatovy 2 – 15.57 km and Takamoto was fastest again from Ott and Sami. Elfyn set the fifth best time, actually faster than the rally leader with Kalle only able to set the sixth best time. He remained firmly in charge though with the lead now 38.2 seconds to Ott.

 

It was back then into Germany for the final stage of the day, SS14 Made in FRG 2 – 14.30 km just as the sun was setting. Thierry set the early pace which even his teammate Ott could not beat whilst Takamoto was third quickest. Elfyn lost more time to Ott as he set the seventh best time, the gap now having grown to 8.4 seconds between them.

 

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

Classification after Day Three

1 K. Rovanperä J. Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 1:56:14.7 2 O. Tänak M. Järveoja Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +36.3 3 E. Evans S. Martin Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +44.7 4 T. Katsuta A. Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +58.3 5 A. Fourmaux A. Coria Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +1:37.7 6 S. Pajari M. Salminen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +1:59.0 7 T. Neuville M. Wydaeghe Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +2:30.9 8 J. McErlean E. Treacy Ford Puma Rally1 +4:39.3 9 O. Solberg E. Edmondson Toyota GR Yaris +6:32.5 10 J. Černý O. Krajča Škoda Fabia RS +8:26.1

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Kalle Rovanperä

“It’s been a good day for us. We had a really good and tight fight going on with Seb and it’s never easy against him. It was not nice to see what happened to him, and the best thing is that he and Vincent are both OK. After that we just had to focus on our own job and I think we did pretty well, as there was a lot of dirt coming onto the road with every car. We still kept a good pace and rhythm and enjoyed the driving without taking any risk. Tomorrow will be a big day at this point of the season, with four of us who need all the points we can get. We also have the rally win to secure, so it won’t be easy, but we’ll try our best.”

Elfyn Evans

“It’s been an OK day but I’m naturally not happy with the pace that we were able to show, especially this afternoon. We were pushing but not really able to deliver the pace, and we haven’t been at the level that I want to be at. We tried to change some things on the car during the day, but it didn’t necessarily go in the right direction. So we need to try and find out why tonight and have another go at it tomorrow, with a lot of points available.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“It’s been a good day overall. I can’t be fully happy, as I lost quite a bit of time on the second stage this morning. The conditions were very tricky in sections, and I was not really committed enough in those places. Otherwise, we could do two fastest times in Klatovy – things were working well in that stage. In the other stages too, the car feels good and when I’m pushing, the times are there so that’s a good sign. There is still a long Sunday to come, and I will try to keep pushing.”

Sami Pajari

“It has again been a tricky day. Like yesterday, I think we had some strong stage times and some that were not so great. So, there is plenty of learning to take from that, but I’m generally satisfied that we had no mistakes or issues and some steady pace, getting closer to the front. There are still quite many kilometres tomorrow, especially in the Power Stage, which is quite long, but they’re nice stages so I’m looking forward to them.”

Sébastien Ogier

“I knew that this second stage of the day would be the most difficult with the rain and the leaves on the road, but we were driving with a good rhythm and feeling. Unfortunately, we started to lose pressure from the front-left tyre close to the end of the stage. Going through a fast right-hander, I couldn’t do anything, and we just understeered into the ditch and hit a tree. It’s frustrating but I don’t think I could have done anything differently and sometimes it’s just a matter of luck. The good news is that we should be able to restart tomorrow, and we will do our best to take the full 10 bonus points.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“Today was consistent, but we’re still missing a bit in the trickier conditions. We managed to improve the balance a bit to carry some more speed over the stages, but we’re still not able to match the fastest cars. I don’t know if tomorrow’s stages are going to suit us, but I’ll give it my best to take everything I can to protect the position we are in at the end of today.”

Adrien Fourmaux

“We found some direction today with Thierry, he found a slightly better setup than us, so we now understand what we are missing. We’ve found really good pace on the flat roads that we didn’t have in the Canaries, but now we’re struggling on the bumpier, greasier sections. I want to enjoy tomorrow, so we will take our learnings from today and go for it.”

Thierry Neuville

“We learned a lot today, there was definitely some improvement for us in the afternoon. Tomorrow is another day to maximise the information we can take from this weekend. Ott is feeling much more comfortable today, especially in the trickier places, so these are all steps forward. We will keep testing different setups tomorrow, we are already in Japan with our thinking – those few extra points may change the season.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“We’d never driven this car with a cross-tyre set-up,” said Oliver. “When the rain was coming on the second stage this morning, we crossed wet tyres with the soft – it was interesting and really good experience. If I’m honest, maybe I was a little bit slow, but we learned some more and that’s what we’re here for.

“We’ve been working a lot with the set-up of the car as well, just discovering more and more on how to get the best out of it. From what we hear, the weather could be getting colder tonight, which could make the morning stages even more interesting tomorrow.”

 

Sunday

Well, the final day will see the crews take on 77km’s over four stages between Germany and Austria. This includes the longest stage run ever as the power stage on tarmac at 26.52km’s. The reports suggest the day will have cooler conditions in the morning. What will this mean for the crews and who will best master these conditions to take the higher number of points for the final day?

The first full day of action then would see the crews tackle six stages. However there had already been two stages run on Thursday afternoon and this gave a leaderboard and Seb was holding the lead from Kalle and Adrien. Now Elfyn was given a five second penalty after colliding with a hay bale in a chicane. The Welshman was holding eighth place and 11 seconds from the leader. With 99km’s to run who would hold the lead at the end of the first full day?

 

First up was SS3 Granit und Wald 1 – 10.86 km and Thierry was fastest from Ott and Adrien. The Belgian’s pace took them up three positions to fourth overall. The top three overall was Seb, Kalle 2.7 seconds and second overall whilst Adrien was third.

 

Into the middle morning stage then, SS4 Böhmerwald 1 – 15.27 km and Kalle set the pace from Sami and Takamoto. Thierry could only manage the sixth best time and fell behind his Estonia teammates to fifth overall. This was an interesting stage as the first and second cars into the stage, that’s Seb and Elfyn could only manage the seventh and eighth fastest times. Kalle was finding some speed though and feeling comfortable and was now just six tenths of a second from Seb.

 

The stages were getting longer and next up was SS5 Col de Jan 1 – 23.37 km and this was a stage which Seb felt confident in as he flew through beating Kalle by 3.3 seconds and Elfyn by 12.9 seconds. Normally this would be quite bad but there was more drama for Thierry, and he had a small off giving him damage to the front right-hand side, then a puncture and damage to his steering after hitting a bank. There was even more drama for Greg as he landed heavily after a jump on a section of bank next to the road breaking suspension on the right-hand side and suffering punctures as well.

 

After the service break came SS6 Col de Jan 2 – 23.37 km and with the stages run in the opposite way from the morning this certainly changed things. Kalle was fastest from Seb and Elfyn. The Finnish driver closed the gap on Seb now just 2.4 seconds behind whilst Elfyn was falling away from them both, the gap sadly growing to his teammates. The top three overall positions were held by Seb, Kalle and Ott although Elfyn was now just half a second behind the Hyundai driver.

 

Next up was SS7 Böhmerwald 2 – 15.27 km and Kalle set the pace from Adrien and Takamoto. Elfyn was fifth fastest, whilst Ott was only eighth and was passed by Elfyn who moved into third overall. Kalle’s pace took him really close to his teammate, now just three tenths behind Seb. Further back Josh held ninth overall and was just out there learning the stages and getting experience for the future.

Onto the final stage of the day then, SS8 Granit und Wald 2 – 10.86 km and Elfyn found some pace albeit not a huge amount, going fastest by 1.1 seconds from Seb and Kalle. Still, it was a confidence boosting stage win. The gap between the top two was six tenths of a second.

 

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

 

Classification after Friday

1 S. Ogier V. Landais Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 1:03:29.8 2 K. Rovanperä J. Halttunen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +0.6 3 E. Evans S. Martin Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +29.5 4 O. Tänak M. Järveoja Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +32.8 5 T. Katsuta A. Johnston Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +35.7 6 A. Fourmaux A. Coria Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +46.1 7 S. Pajari M. Salminen Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +56.0 8 T. Neuville M. Wydaeghe Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +1:55.8 9 J. McErlean E. Treacy Ford Puma Rally1 +2:50.2 10 O. Solberg E. Edmondson Toyota GR Yaris +3:37.6

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Sébastien Ogier

“I’ve enjoyed today and this exciting fight with Kalle. We fought the whole day to try and stay in the lead and even though it’s a very small gap, it’s very positive to still be in the lead. Today I don’t think we always had the usual advantage being first on the road on asphalt because it’s been dry and quite dusty, so I think conditions have been more or less fair for everyone which is what we like to see. Tomorrow will not be any easier, and if it rains it can be even more challenging, but we will keep fighting.”

Kalle Rovanperä

“It has been an enjoyable day driving some really nice stages and being in a big fight through the whole day. Starting third on the road I think we have managed the situation well so far, to be this close to Seb, so I’m pretty happy with the day. We had some good stages and some good times and it’s a tight battle. Tomorrow we have the challenge of being further back in the starting order and seeing how conditions evolve, but I’m sure it will stay really close, and we will keep fighting.”

 

Elfyn Evans

“I think we had some strong moments during the day but overall, it didn’t go as well as we would have hoped – especially on Col de Jan, where we lost a bit of time to Seb and Kalle. On the first pass I was a bit tentative at the start and then had a little overshoot and didn’t get as close as I would have liked on the second pass either. I seemed to be losing more today in the dirtier sections, so we need to look at that tonight and see why that was. It’s good to get up to third but it’s still very tight and we need to keep pushing.”

 

Takamoto Katsuta

“It’s been a very challenging day as we expected, especially stages five and six which had a lot more dirt on the road. But we managed to get through with some quite OK stage times. I think we probably lost some time because of our road position, which was not ideal, but we are only six seconds away from the podium, so we will keep pushing. It’s not been a bad day, and we will try to be even better tomorrow.”

 

Sami Pajari

“It has been a mixed day in terms of the stages and also for our performance. We had some really good stage times but also some stages where I feel we were a bit too far away from the pace. Of course, I would like to do better but we still need to go step by step and we will try to find something to be more consistent tomorrow. The road position should improve which can help us, but let’s see how the conditions are.”

 

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“Today definitely had some very demanding stages, and we didn’t have enough speed. It’s not so much to do with the setup, but more performance we are missing. We all want to be competitive, so it can be frustrating to just survive, but we did everything we could and tried our best.”

Adrien Fourmaux

“When we’re flowing on the flat roads, we are on the pace, but as soon as we get to a bumpy, dirty stage we really struggle. We need to analyse why this is happening and why we are slower in these conditions – that’s our target for now. We are missing really good testing in these conditions, so I’m not really surprised, but that’s a part of motorsport.”

 

Thierry Neuville

“Today was challenging. We made a small mistake this morning when we went over the jump with the wrong line and got some damage and a puncture. We started working on the car, but there still isn’t much improvement, despite the hard work from everybody. We tried a couple of things and we’re going to continue trying, it’s the only thing we can do at the moment, and we know we have some work left.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“It’s been a good day today – it’s really nice to be getting back into driving on asphalt again. The stages in Germany and Austria were quite clean and giving pretty good grip, but the road in Czech Republic was really different. We knew from the recce this would be a tricky one with the grip level changing a lot – and it was exactly like this: a real test. But it was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it.

“I was learning more all of the time with the car. We made some changes to the set-up, but, really, every stage today was different. We’re going to talk to the team tonight and think about what we want to do with the car for tomorrow – but a lot of the set-up is depending on what the weather does. We’ll see if we get some rain, that could make tomorrow even more interesting.”

Saturday

The second full day of action will see the crews tackle 103km’s over six stages which are in Germany and Czech Republic. Can the reversed top ten help Elfyn and Scott to close the gap to their teammates?

We really are getting to the crunch time in this seasons championship battle for the world title for driver and co-drivers. Coming into this round which is made up of roads in Germany, Czech Republic and Austria. Just two points separate the top two crews at the top of the championship with Seb and Vincent ahead of teammates Elfyn and Scott.

 

Meanwhile their other teammates, Kalle and Jonne are twenty-one points from their French teammates as they begin the end of their rally careers at the top of the rallying world. Yes it was announced towards the end of last week that the double Finnish world champions will retire at the end of the year.

 

At Hyundai the gap between Ott and Martin to the championship leaders is thirty-three points. Mathematically they could still win their second title and would need to win the last three rounds to take this year’s title, whilst the reigning champions have given up any chance of retaining their title.

 

The M-Sport crews will be learning again on this round, but both of the crews know how to drive on tarmac surfaces. It will be interesting to see how they get on this weekend.

 

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

Weekend at a Glance

• Cars take to the stages for the first time on Thursday evening, with two loops of Golf und Therme (SS1/2, 12.83km) marking the start of the weekend.
• Friday’s action takes crews across all three countries, with two loops of Granit und Wald (SS3/8, 10.86km), Böhmerwald (SS4/7, 15.27km) and Col de Jan (SS5/6, 23.37km).
• Saturday is the longest day of the weekend, with two loops of Made in FRG (SS9/14, 14.30km), Keply (SS10/12, 21.95km) and Klatovy (SS11/13, 15.57km) covering 103.64km.
• Sunday concludes the penultimate tarmac round of the season with two loops of Beyond Borders (SS15/17, 12.37km) and Mühltal (SS16/18, 26.52km).

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Elfyn Evans

“It was good to get back on the podium in both South American rallies after a long run of gravel rounds, and now we’re looking forward to being back on asphalt and to a different challenge in these next events. There’s an element of the unknown with conditions that will be very different to the last asphalt event in the Canaries. The Central European Rally covers quite a large area so there’s a few variations in surface and character, and the grip levels can be quite mixed. There’s sections that are out in the open and others that are more narrow under the trees. There can also be muddy places, especially if there’s rain in the build-up to the rally, but we have to wait and see how the stages look this year and give it our best.”

Sébastien Ogier

“It feels very good to be where we are and fighting for this championship, but things are still very close, and I know that these last rallies are going to be tough. I expect everyone will be giving their best, and I know that our competitors can be strong on asphalt, so it’s very much game on and I’m looking forward to an intense battle. It’s nice to have this rally in Central Europe, close to my current home and with lots of fan support. It can be a demanding rally but we had great speed last year, we’ve had some good pre-event testing and a good feeling in the car, and I’ll definitely try my best to bring a top result.”

Kalle Rovanperä

“The South American events didn’t go our way but with three rallies to go, we are still in the fight and we’re not giving up. It’s going to be interesting to go back to asphalt. The Central European Rally doesn’t have nice clean asphalt like we had in Canaries, as there’s quite a lot of cuts and mud. So it’s definitely a tricky rally, but it’s a nice event all the same and we’ll try to make it a good one. We had good pace in 2023, and we have good memories from then of when we won the title. We’ve had a nice pre-event test and the feeling with the car is quite good, so let’s see what this year’s rally brings.”

Takamoto Katsuta

“I’m very happy to be going back to asphalt for the next two rallies. They’re both difficult rallies in terms of the conditions and the changing grip levels. Central Europe especially is quite a unique challenge with stages in three different countries, and a lot of cutting and mud on the road. We need to prepare well, particularly as it’s our first time driving with this year’s tyres on this kind of rally. After our test we have quite a good feeling and hopefully everything works well. Last year it was a good rally for me, and we took maximum points on Sunday. We’ll try to repeat that speed and get a good result, also looking towards Rally Japan.”

Sami Pajari

“We have had some really positive rallies recently with some good speed, and it’s been enjoyable to be pushing hard and fighting for positions. Now we come to a totally different challenge, but I don’t see any reason why we can’t have another good rally. I enjoy driving on asphalt and I feel my performance so far on this surface has been quite fine: already last year when we drove this event in Rally1, some stages were really good, and in Canaries too the speed was really good, even if we unfortunately didn’t get the result at the end. This can be a really tricky rally in places and the weather can be hard to predict, but I’m looking forward to it.”

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“We’ve competed at Central European Rally a few times now, so we have a good sense of what to expect. This is an event that is very dependent on the weather conditions; there’s a lot of cuts and the road can become extremely dirty. The further back you are in the road order, the more surprises you encounter – every car pulls more dirt on to the road. Driving style is also key, especially with grip levels changing dramatically, particularly after rain. Experience really counts here. We are still in the hunt for the championship, so delivering a top performance is absolutely essential.”

Thierry Neuville

“I always enjoy Central European Rally, because it’s not too far from home, but it’s an unpredictable event. Running in October means the weather conditions and changing temperatures make this event particularly challenging. We’ve experienced a lot of rain in previous years, which make grip levels really hard for us to predict. This, combined with the amount of cuts we take, increases the risk of punctures. It’s all about finding the right balance of risk and reward, and ideally we’ll have drier, more stable conditions. The recce will be crucial in helping us assess this. I’m determined to continue our podium streak at Central European Rally, so we’ll be pushing for the win until the very end.”

Adrien Fourmaux

“Central European Rally is one of the toughest events on the calendar. With low grip levels and stages that span three countries, it can feel like doing multiple rallies in one weekend. The stages in Czechia are narrow and bumpy with muddy cuts, while Germany and Austria have smoother and wider roads. This contrast makes it harder to judge the grip and choose the right tyres, especially with the leaves that tend to pollute the roads. After seven gravel rallies, switching back to tarmac requires a completely different driving style and tyre strategy; precision is everything at this event. I won in Rally2 here in 2023, but last year was tough. As the season winds down, we’re aiming to push hard and target the podium steps.”

 

M-Sport Ford WRT

Grégoire Munster

“Central Europe is a special event to me because it’s the first Tarmac event I competed on in the Rally1 car back in 2024. We’ve had some good results here in the past, and the conditions are quite similar to what I used to drive in Belgium and Luxembourg, so coming back to my roots with the Puma is always very special. We’ve worked hard to have a good feeling with the car on Tarmac, so let’s see how it goes; the weather across the three countries can certainly pose a challenge on this event.”

Josh McErlean

“The Central European Rally is a demanding Tarmac event, and a great opportunity to continue building my experience in the Puma Rally1 across all three countries. The goal is to find a strong rhythm, adapt to the changing grip levels, and develop confidence in the car across all conditions and hopefully end with a strong result.”

 

Oliver Solberg

“The time since winning the championship in Chile has been really nice. We had time to really share the moment with the team at Printsport, all of our partners, friends and family and, of course, everybody at Toyota for making this amazing car.

“But now, it’s back to the business. Elliott and me are really looking forward to this week, Central European Rally is always a big challenge. The roads vary quite a lot from day-to-day and country-to-country and then there’s the weather… if it stays dry and quite warm then the stages themselves can stay quite clean and keep some grip.

“It’s quite unlikely to stay dry and the roads will get a lot of mud and gravel pulled to them – it’s a big part of the challenge on this event.

“I think it’s fair to say I don’t have so much experience for the Tarmac, I didn’t do this event for the first year and I have missed some other asphalt rounds in the last few years. I want to use this week to find out more from the car and to understand how we can push, what we can do with the set-up for the car and, basically, what we can do to go faster.

“This week is a lot about taking more experience for me.

“At the same time, we always see a lot of fans coming from the three countries and from further away – that’s fantastic! It’s one of the things I love from rallying in this part of the world, we see and get to meet fans from so many places. It’s going to be a cool week.”

 

Summary

It’s going to be a very interesting round and being first or second on the road will be crucial to the hopes of the top two crews in the championship. The road will get messier as there will be lots of road cutting.