Rovanperä’s Rally Dominance
Kalle Rovanperä has fortified his quest for a maiden FIA World Rally Championship victory of the 2025 season, delivering an impeccable performance on Saturday at the Rally Islas Canarias. The Toyota GAZOO Racing luminary is firmly positioned to become the inaugural victor of a WRC round on Gran Canarian soil, carrying a substantial 45.2-second lead into the final five stages on Sunday, where an all-GR Yaris Rally1 front four stands ahead.
Entering this fourth round trailing the championship leader by 57 points, Rovanperä has discovered a rhythm akin to no other. He triumphed in six of Saturday’s asphalt stages, nearly doubling his overnight advantage of 26.8 seconds from Friday. Although Elfyn Evans thwarted a clean sweep by clinching victory in the evening’s super special at the Gran Canaria Arena, Rovanperä has claimed triumph on 12 of the 13 stages to date.
Competitive Landscape
Evans currently occupies third place, trailing Sébastien Ogier by 22.9 seconds, while Takamoto Katsuta finds himself a further 35.8 seconds behind. Toyota appeared poised to dominate the top five positions until Sami Pajari collided with a wooden barrier on the penultimate stage, leading to his retirement after having ascended to fourth overall.
Reflecting on his performance, Rovanperä remarked, “It’s going really well. We made some minor adjustments to the car this afternoon, and I felt even better than in the morning. The first couple of stages were a bit cleaner, so the grip was more consistent and quite pleasant.” As he looks ahead to Super Sunday—where up to 10 bonus points are up for grabs, on top of the 25 awarded for outright victory—he expressed his desire for a similar feeling in the car to carry through to the next day, while also keeping an eye on the broader championship picture.
Meanwhile, Ogier has resigned himself to focusing on consolidating his second-place position, having virtually surrendered his chances of claiming victory on Friday. The Frenchman successfully expanded his lead over Evans on Saturday, further solidifying his position after besting the Welshman over five stages. As things stand, Evans is poised to widen his championship lead beyond 40 points, as his closest rivals, Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak, grapple with turbulent weekends, languishing in sixth and seventh places respectively, behind their team-mate Adrien Fourmaux, due to setup issues thought to be linked to differential settings.
In addition, Fourmaux has fortuitously moved into fifth place, benefiting from Pajari’s retirement, despite stalling in the last stage. He now trails Katsuta by 25.7 seconds, while Neuville and Tänak remain within striking distance. Elsewhere, Grégoire Munster’s ambitions suffered a setback following a mishap that required spectator assistance after he ran wide and beached his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 on SS10. The incident cost him three invaluable minutes, dropping him to 13th overall, and allowing WRC2 frontrunners Yohan Rossel and Alejandro Cachón, along with Munster’s team-mate Josh McErlean, to ascend to eighth, ninth, and tenth positions, respectively.
