Rovanpera continues WRC asphalt masterclass in the Canary Islands

Kalle Rovanpera’s first FIA World Rally Championship victory of the 2025 season came a big step closer with another near-flawless drive on Saturday’s second leg of Rally Islas Canarias.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing star (above) remains firmly on course to become the first-ever winner of a WRC event held on the Canary Islands, the Spanish territory off the northwest coast of Africa. He will carry a commanding 45.2s advantage into Sunday’s five-stage final leg, heading up an all-GR Yaris Rally1 top four on the overall leaderboard.

Rovanpera headed into the WRC’s fourth round 57 points adrift of the championship lead after a relatively slow start to the season, but on Gran Canaria’s all-asphalt stages, the two-time WRC champ has found a rhythm and flow that nobody else has come even close to matching. The Finn won six of Saturday’s stages to almost double his overnight advantage – which had stood at 26.8s on Friday – before teammate Elfyn Evans prevented a clean sweep by winning the short, leg-ending Las Palmas de Gran Canaria super special, which included a crowd-pleasing donut section inside the island’s pro basketball arena. Even so, Rovanpera has claimed victory on 12 of the 13 special stages run so far.

Evans holds third place, 22.9s down on Ogier, with Takamoto Katsuta a further 35.8s adrift in the all-Yaris top four.

Toyota had looked set to continue its Friday lock-out of the top five before Rally1 rookie Sami Pajari broadsided a retaining barrier on the penultimate stage, retiring after having held an impressive fourth overall.

“It’s going really well,” said Rovanpera after his near-perfect Saturday run. “We made some really small changes to the car this afternoon and I felt even better than in the morning, so that was nice. I think also the first two ones were cleaning a bit, so the grip was more consistent.”

Looking ahead to Super Sunday, where up to 10 bonus points are available in addition to the 25 awarded for an outright win, the 24-year-old added: “We need the points, so I just hope we have the same feeling tomorrow in the car – that everything comes easily. If not, then for sure we need to think about the big picture also. But, if everything goes well, of course we need to try to bring some points.”

Ogier, who virtually conceded his hopes of victory on Friday, has since focused on consolidating second place. The eight-time WRC champ managed to pull further clear of Evans on Saturday, doubling his buffer after beating his teammate across five stages.

Sebastien Ogier consolidated his second place through Saturday, but concedes that challenging Toyota teammate Kalle Rovanpera is unlikely. Toyota Gazoo Racing photo

As it stands, Evans is on course to extend his championship lead beyond 40 points, with nearest rivals Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak enduring fraught weekends. The Hyundai factory drivers sit sixth and seventh respectively behind their teammate Adrien Fourmaux, after struggling with setup issues believed to be linked to differential settings on their i20 N Rally1 machines.

Benefiting from Pajari’s retirement, Fourmaux now occupies fifth despite stalling in the donut section of the last stage, and trails Katsuta’s GR Yaris by 25.7s, while reigning WRC champ Neuville and Tanak remain within touching distance of their new-for-2025 teammate.

Best of the rest behind the unstoppable Toyotas, Adrien Fourmaux heads a Hyundai tussle for fifth overall. Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool

Elsewhere, Gregoire Munster’s hopes took a hit when he required spectator assistance after running wide and beaching his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 on the afternoon’s opening stage. The incident cost him three minutes and dropped him to 13th overall. That leaves teammate Josh McErlean, who continues to gain miles and experience in his first Rally 1 campaign, as best of the Pumas in a somewhat out-of-touch 10th overall.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, France’s Yohan Rossel kept Spaniard Alejandro Cachon at arm’s length to move another step closer to a class victory on the Gran Canaria asphalt.

On only his second outing of the season, following a WRC2 win on the Monte Carlo rally season opener, Rossel continued his dominant Friday form, clocking three fastest class times across Saturday’s seven stages. That brought the Citroen C3 driver’s total stage win tally to nine and helped him carry a commanding 18.8s lead into Sunday’s final leg.

With no dramas tomorrow, Rossel is on course to leapfrog Oliver Solberg – who isn’t nominating this event as one of a driver’s seven that count for points – and take over at the top of the WRC2 points standings.

WRC2 leader Yohan Rossel pretty much took up where he left off on Friday, winning three more stages in his Citroen C3. McKlein Photography/Getty Images

Sunday’s finale features 36 miles of competitive action, culminating with the bonus points-paying, rally-closing Wolf Power Stage, a second blast through the 8.37-mile Maspalomas test.

WRC Rally Islas Canarias, positions after Saturday/Leg Two, SS13
1 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 2h22m17.3s
2 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +45.2s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m08.1s
4 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m43.9s
5 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m09.6s
6 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m15.2s
7 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m37.3s
8 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroen C3 – WRC2 leader) +5m45.9s
9 Alejandro Cachon/Borja Rosada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally 2 – WRC2) +6m04.7s
10 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +6m12.3s

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