Rovanpera ignites WRC season with Canary Islands masterclass

Kalle Rovanpera kick-started his 2025 World Rally Championship campaign with one of the most dominant victories of his career at Rally Islas Canarias.

Two-time world champions Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen delivered a masterclass on Gran Canaria’s smooth asphalt mountain roads, winning 14 of the 18 stages. The performance culminated in a first victory of the season by 53.5 seconds from Toyota team-mate and eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier.

“It is quite amazing. It has not been the best start to the season but certainly in this kind of conditions we are back now,” said Rovanpera.

Toyota dominated the event, making its WRC debut, with points leader Elfyn Evans [+1m17.1s] and Takamoto Katsuta [+2m02.9s] completing a 1-2-3-4 for the Japanese manufacturer, while rivals Hyundai endured a disastrous rally.

Rovanpera was not among the pre-event favourites following his struggles in adapting to the new-for-2025 Hankook tyres. However, in Gran Canaria everything seemed to click as Rovanpera found himself in a zone where he could reel off stage win after stage win, without needing to take unnecessary risks.

The Finn enjoyed a run of 12 consecutive fastest times through Friday and Saturday with the streak coming to end in the super special stage 13, which featured a blast around the CB Gran Canaria basketball court.

Rovanpera took a 45.2s lead over Ogier into Sunday’s final five stages, where he was beaten again on stage 16 and 17, before sealing a first victory since September last year in style by winning the Power Stage. As a result, Rovanpera took the maximum 35 points on offer by topping the Super Sunday standings.

Ogier, renowned for his pace on asphalt, was outclassed by Rovanpera throughout. The Frenchman, making his first WRC appearance since winning January’s round in Monte Carlo, admitted he was not as strong on Hankook’s new hard compound tyre as his team-mate. Ogier did, however, finally beat Rovanpera to an outright stage win on stage 17.

Evans was unable to match the speed of Rovanpera and Ogier but produced a solid drive to claim a valuable third, maintaining his record of finishing on the podium in every round so far this year. The Welshman managed to extend his championship lead to 43 points as Rovanpera moved from sixth to second in the standings.

Hyundai underestimated the difficulty of the asphalt rally and were unable to unlock the required set up on all three of its i20 N Rally1 cars, which were driven by Thierry Neuville, Adrien Fourmaux and Ott Tanak, to challenge Toyota. Hyundai declared Saturday and Sunday’s running as a glorified test session in a bid to identify the problems with its 2025 car on tarmac.

Fourmaux emerged as the best of the trio having run a different differential compared to his team-mates. The Frenchman ran as high as fourth on Friday before set up tweaks sent his car’s handling in the wrong direction and down the order on Saturday morning.

The Hyundai driver was able to bounce back, but was left to rue another set up mistake on Sunday. It didn’t prevent him from finishing as the top Hyundai in fifth [+2m31.0s]. Fourmaux inherited the position after Toyota’s Sami Pajari crashed out of the running in stage 12 preventing a potential Toyota 1-2-3-4-5, such was the brand’s dominance.

Neuville was on course to finish sixth before a front left puncture in the penultimate stage dropped the world champion to seventh behind Tanak, who underwent an engine change on Saturday night. Neuville then salvaged a point from the Power Stage.

Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

M-Sport-Ford also struggled to unearth a strong set up on the roads of Gran Canaria. Rally1 rookie Josh McErlean had rounded out the top 10 heading into Sunday before crashing out in the morning’s opening stage. Team-mate Gregoire Munster recovered from an off on Saturday to finish 11th.

Yohan Rossel clinched victory in the WRC2 class finishing eighth overall ahead of local hero Alejandro Cachon and Nikolay Gryazin, who rounded out the top 10.