Kalle Rovanperä claimed an emphatic victory at the head of an outstanding 1-2-3-4 finish for Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team on Rally Islas Canarias on Sunday.
The fourth round of the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship was also good for Welshman Elfyn Evans who retains his lead in the series but with a reduced margin.
Based on the island of Gran Canaria, the event was making its debut in the WRC calendar. It was the first pure asphalt event of the season and the first to feature a new hard-compound Hankook asphalt tyre.
The smooth and winding stages required confidence and performance and the GR Yaris Rally1 proved up to the task, never being headed in the times across all 18 stages. Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen won 15 stages – and all but one of the full-length tests in the mountains. Putting a challenging start to the season behind him, Rovanperä led overall from start to finish to return to the top step of the podium for the first time since Rally Chile last October.
He sealed the win by 53.5 seconds after also setting the best time in the rally-ending Power Stage and topping the Super Sunday classification to score a maximum of 35 points.
With his 16th career victory, Rovanperä now stands alone as the most successful driver for Toyota in the WRC, having previously been tied with Sébastien Ogier and Carlos Sainz on 15 wins and two drivers’ titles with the brand.
Ogier was Rovanperä’s closest challenger throughout the weekend, as he and co-driver Vincent Landais made a strong return to action for the first time since their win at January’s Rallye Monte-Carlo. After finally getting the better of Rovanperä in the penultimate stage, he secured second overall and was second fastest in the Power Stage and Super Sunday.
Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin completed the podium – their fourth top-three finish from as many rounds so far this season – and also came third in the Power Stage and Super Sunday. Those results increase Evans’ drivers’ championship lead to 43 points with Rovanperä now up into second.
Takamoto Katsuta and his co-driver Aaron Johnston completed the top-four sweep: the third time that TGR-WRT have achieved such a result, having done so at Safari Rally Kenya in 2022 and 2023. With a third maximum score of 60 manufacturers’ points from four events, the team’s championship lead has increased to 51.
