Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen finally won Rally Finland, laying to rest the ghost of last year when they crashed out on the penultimate stage.

It was a scintillating final Wolf Power Stage which Rovanperä won by two seconds from Takamoto Katsuta and Sebastien Ogier.

The Finnish wunderkind took the Super Sunday bonus points and moves into second place in the championship standings, just three points off Elfyn Evans who reclaimed the title lead after a disastrous weekend for Ott Tanak.

Tanak suffered a delaminated tyre which caused a high-speed spin on the final stage while Adrien Fourmaux suffered yet another puncture and retired four km from the end of the stage to avoid further damage to his car.

Elfyn Evans brought his GR Yaris home in fourth overall having won the morning’s first stage by 0.4 seconds from Ogier.

Sami Pajari came home in fifth overall, giving Toyota a top five lockout, only the second time in history, a feat last achieved by Lancia 35 years ago on Rally Portugal in 1990.

Thierry Neuville brought his Hyundai home in sixth overall, having run in second place until his fateful puncture on stage 16 on Saturday afternoon.

Josh McErlean was the top M-Sport Ford crew in seventh, followed by Martins Sesks and Gregoire Munster. Ott Tanak salvaged a single point for tenth.

Roope Korhonen fended off TGR Team boss Jari-Matti Latvala to claim his maiden WRC2 victory with Robert Virves rounding out the podium.

Read Motorsport Monday for the full story on the fastest rally in history where Rovanperä averaged 129.9km/h!

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Wet weather greeted the competitors on Saturday morning as the longest day of Rally Finland got underway.

Overnight, Ott Tanak was given a five-minute penalty for a scrutineering incident in a tyre checking zone after stage seven, where he had just crashed into a tree. The penalty dropped the Estonian down to 24^th position in the overall standings.

Rovanperä, chasing his first home win, set off to increase his lead which he almost doubled from 4.9 to 8.3 seconds after Saturday’s opening stage. On stage 12, the Finn’s lead was 12.0 seconds but on (unlucky) stage 13, he picked up a slow puncture and lost 2.7 seconds to Thierry Neuville, who still held second overall.

Rovanperä powered his GR Yaris to another stage win to extend his lead to 14.7 seconds at the end of the morning loop after Neuville lost the rear brakes on his Hyundai. The podium fight between the Belgian and Adrien Fourmaux in third was down to 0.3 seconds.

After the midday service, it was raining again and the crews faced tough conditions. Martins Sesks crawled through the first part of stage 15 with zero visibility and finally found a safe place to pull over and clear the misted-up windscreen. He lost over two minutes and dropped from being the leading M-Sport crew to tenth overall.

At the sharp end of the field, Sebastien Ogier took his first stage win with the top five drivers covered by a mere 1.2 seconds. Sami Pajari turned up the wick to take the fastest time in stage 16 having lost his sixth place overall to Elfyn Evans on the previous stage.

Stage 16 tuned the rally on its head. Lightning struck Hyundai twice; firstly, Fourmaux picked up a right-front puncture which did quite a bit of cosmetic damage to his i20 N as he continued, albeit at a reduced pace and moments later, Neuville also picked up a right-front puncture.

Fourmaux dropped a minute 48.8 seconds and plummeted to seventh, while Neuville lost one minute 38.2 seconds and dropped to sixth overall. Both drivers said they had no idea how their punctures had happened…

Suddenly, Toyota held a one-two-three-four-five with Rovanperä streaking away with a twenty-nine second lead over Takamoto Katsuta, Ogier, Evans and Pajari.

The final two stages went off without any incidents, with Rovanperä taking the scratch time in both stages to end the day with a 36.8 second lead while Evans was closing on Ogier with 1.5 seconds separating the pair.

In WRC2, Roope Korhonen continues to lead with Jar-Matti Latvala holding second from Robert Virves.

The final day features just two stages; the iconic Ouninpohja stage, at 23.98km in length will be run twice.

It is far from over…

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Ott Tänak claimed his 400^th career stage win on the final stage of Rally Portugal on Friday afternoon on his way to a seven second lead over Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais with Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston completing the provisional podium.

The Estonian led the rally from stage two onwards after winning the opening two stages in the morning. There was a frenetic fight for the lead between Tänak and his Hyundai teammates Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria after the French duo took the next two stage wins to narrow the gap to 0.2 seconds after stage five.

The gap between first and second stayed under one second over the next pair of stages until disaster struck in stage eight when Fourmaux clipped a hidden rock on the inside of a hairpin which broke his i20 N’s suspension.

“If there were as many championship titles as stage wins, it would be even better,” Tänak joked of his 400 stage win landmark. “But still, a nice number. It’s been demanding, especially the second loop. We couldn’t really find the sweet spot and were struggling a bit. But the last two stages were clean, so that’s good.”

Six-time Rally Portugal winner Ogier won four stages and moved into second position with Katsuta, who briefly took second overall, ending the day in third after dropping back over the final stage of the long day; It was close between the Toyota Gazoo Racing drivers, with Katsuta just 0.7 seconds behind Ogier after stage five.

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen were a steady fourth and within shouting distance of the trio ahead, just under half a minute off the lead.

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe ended the day in fifth, 4.4 seconds behind Rovanpera after an early spin cost a few seconds; the defending champion clawed his way back from seventh as he fettled his Hyundai’s handling more to his liking as the day wore on.

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen took sixth position off Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin in the final stage, compounding Evans’ misery of opening the road, leaving the championship leader 69 seconds off the pace.   

Gregoire Munster and Josh McErlean ended in eighth and ninth respectively for M-Sport Ford with Oliver Solberg rounding out the top ten and leading WRC2.

There was disappointment for shakedown pacesetter Mārtiņš Sesks, whose day unravelled early with a wheel change on SS2. His troubles worsened when he picked up a three-minute time penalty later in the leg.

Saturday’s route features seven more gruelling stages, covering 122.92 competitive kilometres — including two passes through the iconic Amarante test.

Standings after Friday (SS11 /24):
1. O Tänak / M Järveoja EST Hyundai i20 N 1h 41m 26.2s
2. S Ogier / V Landais FRA Toyota GR Yaris +7.0s
3. T Katsuta / A Johnston JPN Toyota GR Yaris +27.1s
4. K Rovanperä / J Halttunen FIN Toyota GR Yaris +28.3s
5. T Neuville / M Wydaeghe BEL Hyundai i20 N +32.7s
6. S Pajari / M Salminen FIN Toyota GR Yaris +1m 1.4s

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It’s early days in Safari Rally Kenya, the third round of the FIA World Rally Championship with just two stages and 12.91km run on Thursday, but it was Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja heading the score sheets in their Hyundai i20 N, 2.4 seconds ahead of Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston in their Toyota GR Yaris.

Katsuta out braked himself in stage two, sliding through a field and threading his Yaris between a pumphouse and an irrigation system, losing a handful of seconds.

“I’m very happy to be back in Kenya. It’s going to be a big challenge, more than in previous years, but I try to do my best. The second stage was already quite challenging after the rain; it was hard to judge which corners were slippery and I went quite wide at one point, but I’m still here. We could have this situation in many stages during the weekend, so it was a good reminder of what can happen. Tomorrow with some proper stages I’m sure we will see a lot of drama, but I feel comfortable with the car and just need to stay calm and be patient”, Katsuta said.

After taking a pounding in the media after his lacklustre Swedish performance, M-Sport Ford’s Gregoire Munster/Louis Louka lie in third position, 0.2 seconds behind his Japanese rival.

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen – double Safari winners – are a further 0.4 seconds adrift with the championship leader Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin lying in fifth despite winning the opening super special stage by 1.5 seconds.

Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy won the rookie battle, ending sixth with Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen trailing behind by one second; first to seventh is covered by 9.8 seconds as can be expected with minimal timed running.

Thierry Neuville suffered a technical issue in stage two after a wild two-wheeled moment and lies in eighth place overall, 19.7 seconds behind Tanak.

There was drama for Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria who failed to get to the start of SS2 after their Hyundai’s engine refused to fire up after the re-group.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz leads WRC2 in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 debut with Oliver Solberg lurking 1.3 seconds behind.

There were comical scenes at the end of the opening stage when drivers either refused to give an end of stage interview or spoke in their native tongue in protest against the FIA’s swearing clampdown and Adrien Fourmaux’ s €10k fine on Rally Sweden.

The action resumes on Friday morning with the first of the day’s six stages. The biggest challenge will be the 31.40km Camp Moran test – the longest of the rally – which opens the morning and afternoon loops.

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Super Sunday on Rally Sweden was just that! After 300km of hard racing, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin won the second round of the FIA World Rally Championship by 3.8 seconds from Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston in another Toyota Gazoo Racing one-two.

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe brought their Hyundai i20 N home on the final step of the podium, fending off the attentions of the 2019 World Campion Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja by 4.9 seconds.

The final day featured two runs over the longest stage of the rally and the Wolf Power Stage; the first 29.35km run over Västervik saw Katsuta set the fastest time, beating Evans by a relatively massive 7.5 seconds – and re-taking the overall rally lead with a margin of 4.5 seconds and two stages remaining.

Evans dug deep in the penultimate stage, setting the fastest time, crucially 8.2 seconds faster than his Japanese teammate and with a 3.7 second cushion heading into the 8km Power Stage, it was going down to the wire!

Katsuta set the benchmark time in the Power Stage but Evans was 0.1 seconds faster, clinching 35 points for a perfect weekend score.

Kalle Rovanpera and Jonne Halttunen brought their GR Yaris home in fifth, ahead of the leading M-Sport Ford Puma of Martins Sesks and Renars Francis, winning the ‘battle of the youngsters’ by beating Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen by 22.2 seconds.

The third youngster, Ireland’s Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy, buried their Puma deep in a snow bank 14.9km into the day’s first stage. They rejoined thanks to a group of spectators who helped dig their car out, but fell way down the order.

Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson made it a hat-trick of WRC2 victories on Rally Sweden after leading throughout the four day event. Roope Korhonen/Anssi Viinikka took second with Mikko Heikkila/Kristian Temonen rounding out the podium.

Read Motorsport Monday tomorrow for a full Rally Sweden report

The post Elfyn Evans wins Rally Sweden by a whisker appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin maintained their lead on Rally Sweden after another seven blisteringly fast stages but came under intense pressure from his Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston.

Kalle Rovanperä took his first Rally Sweden stage win to get the day underway. Katsuta pipped Evans by 0.5 seconds, bringing the overall lead down to just one tenth of a second. Tänak was 1.6 seconds off the lead while Fourmaux was drifting away from the fight.

On stage 10, Evans pipped Rovanperä by 0.4 seconds while Tänak had an issue – he wouldn’t say what the problem was at the stage end interview but he lost time on the next stage as well, losing his podium place to Neuville who won the last stage of the morning loop.

Fourmaux was only tenth quickest on stage 11 and dropped to sixth overall behind a resurgent Rovanperä 9.8 seconds up the road.

Munster was second on the road and was 1’56.3’ off the pace, looking all at sea and a shadow of the driver who took his maiden stage win in Monte Carlo three weeks ago.

Whatever the issue was with Fourmaux’s and Tanak’s Hyundais, it was sorted at the midday service and the two troubled drivers bounced back in style. Fourmaux took the stage win with Tänak one second behind and Evans 0.2 seconds further back.

Katsuta overshot a corner and had to reverse out, losing only 4.4 seconds but it allowed Evans some breathing space at the top of the leaderboard with a six second overall lead, while Tänak found himself 11.3 seconds adrift of the top spot, and shadowed by Neuville, 2.6 seconds behind in fourth.

“I overshot and backed up, I don’t know how much I lost. It was a stupid mistake but this is the first time I made a mistake this weekend so it is okay. I want to continue on. I feel very confident we can get the time back and will try not to make a mistake again,” the Toyota star reported at the end of the stage.

Stage 13 claimed the first major scalp – Fourmaux ran wide into a snowbank, and the front end of the Hyundai dug in. Although he tried to power the car out, it was beached up to the chassis. The frozen crew tried – in vain – to dig themselves out and were forced to throw in the towel, a fate that also befell Tuukka Kauppinen earlier in the day.

The final forest stage, SS 14, saw Neuville bank another stage win, one second quicker than Katsuta and 2.4 seconds up on Tänak. Evans dropped 2.6 seconds to Katsuta to end the serious business with a six second lead with the third Umeå Sprint left to run.

Evans had a moment with a snowbank, oh-so-close to ‘doing a Fourmaux’ but he got away with it. “It wasn’t a big hit with a bank, pretty low grip and I lost the front on the way in. The speed wasn’t so wrong, just the angle of the car was wrong. It hurts a bit down the next straight,” said Evans after his heart-stopping moment in stage 14.

The final stage saw Evans go into a sharp corner a bit too hot and he half spun and stalled, losing three seconds to Katsuta; the inter team fight was three seconds going into Super Sunday while lurking ever closer to the lead, Neuville was 3.3 seconds behind the Japanese driver and 6.3 seconds off the top step of the podium.

Tänak held on to fourth in spite of managing issues, which he refused to elaborate on. Rovanperä started the day 23 seconds off the pace and ended the day 22.9 seconds behind Evans.

Martins Sesks held sixth, 12.2 seconds ahead of fellow newbie Sami Pajari who in turn was 22.2 seconds ahead of Josh McErlean. 40.1 seconds behind the Irishman, was Munster…

In WRC2, Oliver Solberg enjoyed a comfortable 39 second lead over Roope Korhonen with Mikko Heikkila up in to third.

The post Elfyn Evans under pressure on Rally Sweden – Fourmaux crashes out appeared first on Motorsport Week.

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin lost the lead of Rally Sweden twice, once to Takamoto Katsuta and once to Ott Tänak, but by the time the crews rolled into the stop control on the final Friday stage, the Toyota Gazoo Racing crew held a 0.6 second lead over Katsuta who won stage five and took the overall lead.

Evans struck back one stage later before succumbing to Tanak’s flying Hyundai i20 N on stage seven, dropping to third overall.

The final stage may have only been 5.1km long but it was enough for Evans to end the day clinging on to the lead from his on-form Japanese teammate.

The Welshman started the day in fine form, with the temperatures recording -12°C, bagging the opening stage scratch time before Hyundai’s coming man Adrien Fourmaux took two stage wins on the trot to keep Evans very much on his toes and under pressure.

Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak both complained of understeer, as did Kalle Rovanperä and Grégoire Munster in the lead M-Sport Ford Puma. All four bled time throughout the morning.

At the midday service, Evans led Fourmaux by 1.9 seconds with Tänak 4.3 seconds behind and 2.2 seconds ahead of Katsuta, the top four blanketed by 8.4 seconds. The leading Ford Puma belonged to rookie Rally1 driver Josh McErlean and Eoin Tracey, something of an indictment on Munster’s performance.

After service and some tweaking Katsuta, Tänak, Neuville and Evans each took a stage win and by the end of the day’s action, the top five were covered by 9.1 seconds!

Sami Pajari was flying on the day’s opening stage but gave a Valentine’s kiss to a snow bank, pulling a tyre off the rim which cost 40 seconds as the Yaris limped through the stage.

The other youngster in the field, Latvian Martins Sesks built up his speed over the day, recording the third fastest time on stage five as well as stage six as he builds his confidence of rallying on snow and ice and ended the day the fastest of the M-Sport quartet.

In Rally2, Oliver Solberg has a 20.7 second lead over Roope Korhonen having won five of the day’s seven stages. Georg Linnamäe lies third, some 45 seconds off the pace in spite of winning stage six.

Positions after SS8:

1. Evans, Katsuta +1.9, Tänak +3.6, Fourmaux +9.3, Neuville +14.3

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Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team has announced its line-up for the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship season as it further strengthens its squad of drivers with a mix of young talent and title-winning experience.

After winning eight out of 13 rallies in 2024 and claiming a fourth consecutive manufacturers’ championship at the season-ending Rally Japan, TGR-WRT will enter 2025 with the mission to defend its crown and fight for the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles. It will be able to count on an expanded line-up of cars and drivers, with four or five GR Yaris Rally1 entries set to appear on each event.

Joining the team to start his first full season at the highest level will be22 year-old Finn Sami Pajari, following an impressive 2024 season in which he won the WRC2 drivers’ championship driving the GR Yaris Rally2 car and performed well in his first three outings in Rally1 machinery in Finland, Chile and Central Europe. Pajari’s inclusion in the TGR-WRT roster demonstrates their commitment to developing young drivers as well as the GR Yaris Rally2’s role in providing a pathway to the top of the sport.

Pajari, who will confirm the identity of his co-driver in due course, is one of four drivers who are set to feature on every rally.

Double world champions Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen will return to competing full-time with the team in 2025 after taking four wins from seven starts during a partial campaign this year. Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin, winners of last weekend’s Rally Japan, continue for their sixth successive season with the team, with Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston also returning for another year. Eight-time world champion Sébastien Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais will once more contest a partial schedule of selected events after scoring three victories this season.

Jari-Matti Latvala will continue in the role of Team Principal and will drive one of the most successful Toyota rally cars – the Celica ST185 – in Toyota Gazoo Racing colours in the FIA European Historic Rally Championship.

Juha Kankkunen will take up the role of Deputy Team Principal. A four-time world champion, who won the last of his titles driving the Toyota Celica ST185 in 1993, Kankkunen will bring considerable experience to share with the drivers and other team members

The post Toyota Gazoo Racing announces strong WRC line-up for 2025 appeared first on Motorsport Week.

The first full day of WRC Vodafone Rally de Portugal delivered action in spades as five different stage winners made for a very close fight for the lead.

Kalle Rovanperä overcame a challenging Friday to lead a frenzied see-saw battle for the top spot. Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston got the ball rolling taking the scratch time in the first gravel stage and despite running first on the road, Thierry Neuville was second quickest, hanging on to the overall lead by 0.8 seconds.

Hyundai’s third stand-in driver Dani Sordo, enjoying his first outing since Japan last year, took the next two stages, before Neuville bounced back to take the final stage before the tyre change.

Rovanperä initially languished in fifth overall after a lacklustre opener but posted top-three times in the remaining seven tests, confidently climbing the standings despite reporting excessive understeer in his GR Yaris.

He seized the lead after overtaking early pacesetter Takamoto Katsuta on the afternoon’s second test at Lousã and went fastest on the penultimate stage at Arganil, but Ogier’s blistering run through the Mortágua finale narrowed the gap and intensified the pressure.

“It has been a great battle the whole day,” admitted Rovanperä “I could not do much more [in the last one] because my tyres were in such bad condition at the rear and it was just about surviving.

“[The battle] is only fun if you are winning, so let’s see!”

Tyre management played a crucial role. Pirelli’s soft compound rubber was favoured for this morning’s sandy surfaces, while hard tyres came into play in the afternoon when the repeated stages were rougher and temperatures higher.

Ogier’s late surge propelled him from fourth to second overall. He could have potentially led overnight were it not for an intercom failure during SS5 and a loss of hybrid power on SS8.

Katsuta lived up to his promise to push hard from the outset, clinching the Mortágua 1 stage win as well as setting top-three times on both runs of Arganil. He was happy to bring up the rear of a Toyota 1-2-3 overnight despite falling 3.7sec behind Ogier, while Ott Tänak completed the day just 0.7sec further back in fourth after admitting to a “not nice” feeling behind the wheel of his Hyundai i20 N.

Although Toyota enjoyed a successful day, misfortune befell title-hunting GR Yaris driver Elfyn Evans, whose co-driver Scott Martin resorted to using his mobile phone to access a digital copy of their pace notes after misplacing the physical book before SS7. Their frustrations were compounded by a tyre being pushed off the wheel rim in the same stage, costing the British pair almost a minute.

That turn of events was a boon for championship leader Thierry Neuville, who headed Evans by six points before this round.

Despite facing the challenge of opening the road and sweeping a cleaner and faster line for those running behind, Neuville managed to stay in touch with the leaders and ended 0.2sec behind his Hyundai colleague Dani Sordo in sixth. Sordo lost hybrid power for SS5 but still managed to win three of the day’s eight stages.

M-Sport Ford Puma hotshot Adrien Fourmaux headed Evans on his return to the Matosinhos service park while Grégoire Munster and WRC2 leader Oliver Solberg completed the top 10.

Saturday hosts the longest leg of the rally, with 145km of action packed into two loops of four stages before the Lousada super special stage concludes the day.

Leading positions after Friday:

1. K Rovanerä / J Halttunen FIN Toyota GR Yaris 1h 25m 0.4s

2. S Ogier / V Landais FRA Toyota GR Yaris +1.0s

3. T Katsuta / A Johnston Toyota GR Yaris JPN +4.7s

4. O Tänak / M Järveoja EST Hyundai i20 N +5.4s

5. D Sordo C Carrera ESP Hyundai i20 N +17.9

6. T Neuville / M Wydaeghe BEL Hyundai i20 N +18.1

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Takamoto Katsuta went wide in SS10 and got sucked into a snowbank. There’s no spectators around although two marshals made their way to help, digging the deep snow out from under the car by hand.

It is unknown if the Yaris has suffered  any damage.

Esapekka Lappi finds himself with a near minute and a half lead…

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