Rovanperä sweeps Gran Canaria to close the gap in the world championship

Kalle Rovanperä returned to his best form with a dominant victory at the Rally Islas Canarias this Sunday, closing the gap in his pursuit of a third consecutive world title.

The Finnish driver arrived at this fourth round of the championship nearly 60 points behind the leader, but after a flawless performance, he reduced that deficit to 43 points and climbed from sixth to second place in the overall standings.

Photo By Red Bull Content Pool

Toyota dominates podium in Gran Canaria debut

The asphalt roads of Gran Canaria, with their complex mountain sections, presented an unprecedented challenge for teams as it marked the WRC's first appearance on the Atlantic island. Rovanperä immediately found an unbeatable pace, winning 15 of the 18 stages over the 300-kilometer route.

The Toyota GAZOO Racing driver secured all 35 available points thanks to his performance on Super Sunday and the Wolf Power Stage, claiming his second asphalt victory and his first win since Rally Chile Bío Bío seven months ago.

"It's incredible. It hasn't been the best start to the season, but we're definitely back, at least in these conditions. Congratulations to the whole team at the workshop and everywhere. The cars were very fast and I really enjoyed it," Rovanperä commented after the victory.

Toyota's superiority was evident with Sébastien Ogier finishing second, 53.5 seconds behind his teammate. Elfyn Evans completed the podium, finishing 23.6 seconds behind Ogier, maintaining his consistent performance in 2025 as he hasn't finished off the podium in any round this season.

Hyundai struggles as Toyota extends lead

For Toyota, the success was complete with Takamoto Katsuta taking fourth position, allowing the Japanese manufacturer to score a top-four sweep that extends their lead in the constructors' championship to 49 points over Hyundai Motorsport.

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This marked the third time Toyota has taken the top four positions in a rally, having previously achieved this at the Safari Rally Kenya in 2022 and 2023.

The first pure asphalt event of the season also saw the debut of Hankook's new hard compound asphalt tires, which adapted perfectly to the GR YARIS Rally1 that led every stage time during the weekend.

With his sixteenth WRC victory, Rovanperä becomes Toyota's most successful driver in the World Championship, surpassing Sébastien Ogier and Carlos Sainz, who each had 15 wins with the Japanese manufacturer.

Hyundai endured a difficult weekend, with all three i20 N Rally1 drivers experiencing handling issues reportedly related to differential setup. Adrien Fourmaux was the Korean team's best finisher in fifth position, though he finished more than 2 minutes and 30 seconds behind Rovanperä.

His teammates Ott Tänak and Thierry Neuville finished sixth and seventh respectively. Neuville and Tänak were second and third in the drivers' standings before this rally but have now dropped to third and fifth. Tänak's weekend became even more complicated when his car required an engine change on Saturday night, a task completed in a remarkable 46 minutes.

The WRC2 drivers Yohan Rossel, Alejandro Cachón and Nikolay Gryazin completed the top 10, while Grégoire Munster of M-Sport Ford recovered to eleventh after going off-road on Saturday. His teammate Josh McErlean failed to finish after hitting an Armco barrier on Sunday's first stage.

The World Rally Championship will return to action next month with the Rally de Portugal, the fifth round of the season, which will be held on gravel in the northwestern city of Matosinhos from May 14-19.