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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Oliver Solberg and Elliot Edmondson stunned the WRC elite with a commanding display across the high-speed gravel roads of Estonia, sealing his breakthrough win on debut in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 – nearly 20 years after father Petter’s final WRC success in 2005.

With an overnight lead of 21.1 seconds heading into Sunday’s final three stages and 60km of racing, it was a nervous Solberg who faced a wet-dry stage. He made no mistakes and set the fastest time, as he did on the 24km long penultimate test, taking his tally to nine stage wins.

Solberg also took the maximum Super Sunday bonus points. “After everything, so many years trying and trying and trying and dreaming, and me and Elliott finally made it,” said Solberg. “I just want to say thank you to Toyota, to the test team who helped me get so comfortable, for all the help this weekend from this beautiful, beautiful team. I’ve never had such a good time in my life.”

Home hero Ott Tanak and Martin Jarveoja brought their Hyundai i20 home in second place and took the championship lead by one point from Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin.

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe completed the podium after Hyundai called time-out on their ferocious fight on Saturday. The current world champion was slapped with a 10-second penalty for a jumped start on the first stage of the day.

Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen finished a humbling and lonely fourth overall, with the three-time Rally Estonia winner taking the Wolf Power Stage win.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria ended fifth overall having left bits of their Hyundai in the Estonian countryside after a nose-first landing in the day’s opening stage.

Evans and Scott Martin passed Takamoto Katsuta for sixth in the penultimate stage, but the Japanese driver was forced to retire before the final test.

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen ended seventh ahead of M-Sport Ford’s leading crew, Martins Sesks and Renars Francis, with Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy and Grégoire Munster and Louis Louka rounding out the top ten in their Puma Rally1 machines.

Robert Virves and Jakko Viilo claimed their maiden WRC win on home soil ahead of fellow Estonians Georg Linnamäe and James Morgan.

Read the full report in Motorsport Monday tomorrow.

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Sébastien Ogier stretched his Rally Italia Sardegna lead on Saturday morning as Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux and Ott Tänak both ran into problems in the punishing island stages.

Ogier’s 2.1 second overnight lead stretched to 7.4 seconds after winning Saturday’s opening stage, beating this Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate Kalle Rovanperä by 3.1 seconds, while Hyundai’s Ott Tänak and Adrien Fourmaux finished third and fourth respectively.

Tänak fought back on stage eight, cutting the Frenchman’s lead to 4.5 seconds but on the second stage of the day Fourmaux picked up a puncture dropping off the podium. Tänak and Rovanperä moved up into the provisional overall podium standings with Sami Pajari holding an excellent fourth overall, ahead of Elfyn Evans and Takamoto Katsuta.

Ogier was a on a mission on the final stage of the morning loop, heading his Estonian rival by 10 seconds as Tänak had to deal with a deflating tyre, to take a 15 second advantage into the afternoon loop.

Fourmaux’s day went from bad to worse after he ran wide in stage nine, losing another chunk of time.

Tänak reminded everyone he was still in the chase for the win taking the fastest time in stage ten, but only shaved 0.6 seconds off Ogier’s fairly comfortable lead.

Tänak took a big bite out of Ogier’s lead on stage 11, pulling the gap back to 10.7 seconds with one stage remaining.

Evans helped himself to fourth overall after stage 11 at Pajari’s expense, while on the final stage, Ogier took the scratch time again, 0.4 seconds up on the chasing Hyundai.

Rovanperä, Evans and Pajari held station ahead of the WRC2 leader Nikolay Gryazin, who was followed by the recovering Katsuta who dropped down the order after his Friday roll.

Oliver Solberg, Emil Lindholm and Lauri Joona rounded out the top ten with four stages remaining on Sunday.

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Sébastien Ogier was a surprise overnight leader at Vodafone Rally de Portugal after Ott Tänak’s hopes of a long-awaited victory were ruined by a power steering failure late on Saturday afternoon.

With an overnight lead of seven seconds over Ogier, Tanak saw his lead shrink on Saturday’s opening test which was won by Ogier to trim the Estonians advantage to 4.4 seconds.

Tänak had led the gravel fixture since stage two on Friday morning and showed steely determination and lightning speed to win three consecutive stages and rebuild his advantage to 13.9 seconds. Heading into the penultimate test, Amarante 2, the Hyundai driver looked firmly in control – but it all came undone on the rally’s longest stage.

A power steering issue struck halfway through the 22.10km test, forcing Tänak to wrestle his i20 N Rally1 to the finish. He dropped over 45sec and relinquished the lead he had fought so hard to build, tumbling to third overall in the process.

Ogier, who had spent most of the day shadowing Tänak, suddenly found himself at the top of the leaderboard. The eight-time world champion and six-time Rally Portugal winner leads the rally by 27.0sec heading into Sunday’s six-stage finale and stands on the verge of a record-extending seventh Vodafone Rally de Portugal triumph.

“It’s not the way you want to win any fight,” said Ogier. “We were both pushing really hard – that’s the game. We tried to keep the pressure on, even if he was a bit quicker. At the end of the previous stage, I actually said to my engineer: ‘Honestly, anything can happen – it’s rough out there. He’s pushing really hard, we need to keep the pressure on.’”

“I’m not happy,” he continued. “I don’t want to celebrate this way. I just hope he can still recover as many points as possible – it’s not over. Tomorrow is a long day.”

Tänak said: “It’s part of the game, I guess. Very unfortunate, but we gave everything from our side.”

Kalle Rovanperä moved up to second, 8.5sec clear of Tänak. The Toyota star had started the day in fourth but overtook Takamoto Katsuta during the morning and gradually pulled clear as the day progressed.

Katsuta’s pace faded in the afternoon, and he dropped behind Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, who climbed to fourth on the penultimate stage. The Belgian now trails Rovanperä by 17.0sec, with Katsuta a further 2.2sec back in fifth.

Championship leader Elfyn Evans endured another difficult day and sits seventh overall behind Sami Pajari. After losing time as Friday’s road opener, Evans struggled again to find a rhythm despite a better starting position on Saturday and now trails Pajari by 17.5sec.

Josh McErlean moved up to eighth, edging past M-Sport Ford colleague Grégoire Munster on the opening stage. The Irishman ended the day 28.5sec ahead in their intra-team duel. Oliver Solberg rounded out the leaderboard in 10th and continued to dominate the WRC2 category, maintaining a 50.1sec margin over Gus Greensmith.

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Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen completed their domination of the fourth round of the World Rally Championship, winning 15 of the 18 stages en route to building a 53.5 second cushion over the eight-time WRC champion Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais.

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were ranked third in all the metrics; overall, Super Sunday and Wolf Power Stage extending their advantage at the top of the championship leaderboard to 43 points.

Rovanperä won the Super Sunday standings and topped the Wolf Power Stage timesheets giving the Finnish Toyota Gazoo Racing crew the maximum haul of 35 points which elevates them to second overall in the title race, up from sixth in one fell swoop.

Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston made it a Toyota 1-2-3-4 exorcising the Japanese driver’s ghost from Safari Rally Kenya where he crashed out on the final stage.

Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria were the leading Hyundai team in fifth place, followed by Ott Tanak and Martin Järveoja in sixth and the luckless Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe coming home in seventh after a puncture in the penultimate stage cost them a minute.

Josh McErlean and Eoin Treacy crashed their M-Sport Ford Puma out of the rally in the morning’s opening stage.

Yohan Rossel and Arnaud Dunand took their second victory of the year in WRC2 and lead the championship after fending off the very close attention of Alejandro Cachón and Borja Rozada in a thrilling battle.

Nikolay Gryazin and Konstantin Aleksandrov brought their Skoda home in third place.

Read Motorsport Monday for the full report. On Monday, obviously!

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With just the super special stage remaining on Saturday, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen won every stage of the day, giving the rally leader not only a full house of 12 stage wins out of 12, his lead extended to an impressive 45.7 seconds ahead of Sebastian Ogier, who eased away from Elfyn Evans who was 23 seconds adrift in third.

The morning loop of the longest day of the rally saw ‘business as usual’ at the head of the leaderboard. Rovanperä won all three of the morning stages to extend his lead over Sebastian Ogier to 36.9 seconds.

Ogier ran Rovanperä close in the two opening tests, finishing one second adrift in SS7 and 0.7 seconds in the following stage. Rovanperä re-asserted his mastery in the final stage before service, hustling his GR Yaris through the 23.3km test 8.4 seconds quicker than anyone else.

Elfyn Evans maintained his third position in something of a no-mans-land; too far behind Ogier to challenge for second and well ahead of Toyota’s rising star, Sami Pajari. Stage eight saw the top four Toyotas covered by 1.2 seconds, with Pajari snapping at Evans’ heels on occasion, finishing stage eight and nine 0.4 seconds behind the championship leader on both occasions.

Takamoto Katsuta got in on the action as well, setting the third best time in SS9 but remained behind Pajari in the overall standings.

Adrien Fourmaux was once again the quickest Hyundai and pushed his teammates down the order as he re-claimed sixth overall. Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak were still experiencing handling issues and languished in seventh and eighth. They set near-identical times in stage eight but were still only seventh and eighth quickest.

M-Sport Ford’s duo of Grégoire Munster and Joshua McErlean were mired at the foot of the Rally1 standings, battling their ill-handling Pumas.

After the service break the order remained unchanged with one difference. Evans only set the sixth fastest time, beaten by Pajari, Katsuta and Fourmaux in stage 10.

Munster was a little optimistic in stage 11, hustling his recalcitrant Puma too fast into a corner 3.5km into the stage. He missed a tree by millimeters but beached himself in a clump of thick bamboo and lost three minutes as spectators battled to manhandle the car back onto the road.

Stage 12 brought disaster for Sami Pajari; with a split time well up on Katsuta, he understeered into a barrier around 20km into the stage and damaged the right front corner of his Yaris. Game over.

The fight in WRC2 was intense: Yohan Rossel still led but he was under attack from Alejandro Cachón and Nikolay Gryazin. Rossel’s lead was down to 14.8 seconds after the morning loop but by close of business ahead of the super special stage, the French ace’s lead was back to 20.5 seconds.

The final 1.8km stage brought an end to Rovanperä’s rout. Evans took the stage win from Ogier with Neuville tied on time with Rovanperä.

Five stages and 58km remain with ten bonus points up for grabs.

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Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen dominated the opening day of Rally Islas Canarias, winning all six stages to enjoy a commanding 26.8 second lead over Sebastian Ogier and Vincent Landais, heading a stunning Toyota Gazoo Racing 1-2-3-4-5.

Rovanperä laid down his marker as early as the shakedown stage on Thursday, setting the quickest time by just over four seconds. The double world champion made his GR Yaris Rally1 obey his every command around the twisty, sometimes narrow 118.8km of tarmac stages.

Ogier had the measure of Evans – who opened the road – but the gap between the two Yaris drivers was just 9.6 seconds.

The championship leaders Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin were doing what they needed to do, setting a risk-free pace knowing their title rivals Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe were enduring a miserable day along with the entire Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team squad.

Adrien Fourmaux was the leading Hyundai across the morning loop of stages while Ott Tanak/Martin Järveoja and Neuville languished in seventh and eighth respectively, mystified by their i20 N’s poor handling. To put that in perspective, Neuville lost 13 seconds in the opening stage alone…“Honestly, it’s not very enjoyable and it’s just not working,” Neuville said. “I can’t take any line. Nothing is working.”

Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen ended the opening three-stage loop 0.2 seconds behind Fourmaux; after the first stage after the midday service, Pajari had moved ahead of the Frenchman with the fifth Toyota of Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston lining up the Hyundai who duly took fifth in stage five.

From being the fastest Hyundai before lunch, Fourmaux became the slowest and lost positions to Neuville and Tanak although the advantage between the two champions was a whisker at 0.8 seconds with Fourmaux another 0.7 seconds further back. There were no happy faces in the Korean camp…

The M-Sport Ford Pumas were – there’s no other description – pedestrian, propping up the bottom of the Rally1 timing sheets. In the opening stage, Munster was more than one second per kilometer off the pace and ended the day a whopping 2’11” off the lead. Both he and Josh McErlean reported handling issues.

In WRC2, Yohan Rossel and Arnaud Dunand were doing a “Rovanperä”, winning all six stages in their Citroen C3, if not at a canter, sufficiently quick to hold off the Spanish Rally Champion Alejandro Cachón/Borja Rozada in their Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. Leo Rossel Guillaume Mercoiret in the second PH Sport Citroen rounded out the class podium.

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In spite of running first on the road, Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin took the 5.16km Umeå Sprint stage win by half a second from their Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen.

Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja led the Hyundai charge, tying with Rovanperä, with Adrien Fourmaux and Alex Coria 0.7 seconds back in fourth place.

Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe set the fifth fastest time, 3.7 seconds off Evans’ time, followed by Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston and Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen.

M-Sport Ford’s rookie, Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy in only their second Rally1 start, lead the four-car strong Puma attack with the eighth fastest time, three seconds quicker than Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka while Martins Sesks/Renars Francis rounded out the top ten.

In WRC2, Oliver Solberg – chasing a hat trick of Rally2 wins – and co-driver Elliot Edmondson beat fellow Swedes Pontus Tidemand/Jorgen Eriksen by 1.4 seconds to lay down an early marker.

Earlier in the day, Neuville topped the shakedown stage times, from Sesks, Tänak, Fourmaux and Evans.

There’s a long way to go…

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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.

Toyota Gazoo Racing bounced back in style on the final gravel event of the World Rally Championship in Chile, the 11^th of 13 rounds.

Sebastian Ogier took the early lead but lost it in stage three, letting Elfyn Evans, who was on fire over the opening day to take the overnight lead before losing time to Rovanperä in the foggy Saturday stages.

Rovanperä took the lead mid-Saturday and never looked back with Evans holding station in second. Ott Tänak took the final podium position ahead of Thierry Neuville, whose championship lead was cut to 29 points.

Adrien Fourmaux brought his M-Sport Ford Puma home in fifth ahead of the ever-impressive Sami Pajari, making his second appearance in the Toyota Yaris Rally1.

After being forced to retire on Saturday, Sebastian Ogier won all four Sunday stages to take the maximum Super Sunday points, which helped Toyota halve its deficit to Hyundai in the Manufacturers’ Championship to 17 points.

In WRC2, there was heartbreak for Oliver Solberg, whose charge to the title was halted by a puncture on Saturday. He has completed his seven nominated rounds so the title, while not over, is not in his hands anymore.

Yohan Rossel took a commanding win from Nikolay Gryazin and Gus Greensmith, who lost second place in the final stage after a half spin.

Read Motorsport Monday tomorrow for a full report

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