The first full day in the fourth round of the championship saw Toyota drivers dominate the timesheets on the six stages, whilst the Hyundai crews really struggle. Here’s the story of the today’s action.
First stage, SS1 Valsequillo – Telde 1 – 26.32 km and Kalle was fastest from Elfyn and Seb. The best of the Hyundai crews was Adrien in fourth and almost 13 seconds from the leader. Thierry was even further off the pace at almost 20 seconds away from the leader and in eighth place. It was not a good start for the Belgian crew.
Into SS2 Valleseco – Artenara 1 – 15.27 km and this stage had some interesting conditions, with very low cloud around the middle part of the stage covering the road and some damp spots on the road. Some crews had taken soft tyres in the hope that it would give better grip. Kalle again set the pace from Seb and Elfyn. Seb moved past Elfyn and into second overall. Further back Sami was on the move passing Takamoto and Ott and moved into fifth overall. Meanwhile Thierry continued to struggle and dropped a further 16 seconds back.
The final morning stage then, SS3 La Aldea – Mogán 1 – 17.83 km and Kalle made it three out of three winning this stage from Seb and Elfyn. Adrien remained the top Hyundai driver yet was 34 seconds from Kalle. Takamoto moved up one position to sixth place passing Ott.
After the service break came SS4 Valsequillo – Telde 2 – 26.32 km and Kalle picked up where he left off with the fastest time from Seb and Elfyn third fastest. Sami was also finding the pace out there setting the fourth best time and this took him past Adrien and into fourth overall. Meanwhile Thierry was now almost a minute from the leader. It was really not going well for the driver who was hoping for so much more.
Kalle continued to dominate the timesheets winning SS5 Valleseco – Artenara 2 – 15.27 km from Elfyn and Seb. Takamoto moved up into fifth place with Adrien losing another position as a result. Thierry was a little closer to the pace at the front, yet still remained slower and over a minute behind Kalle.
The final stage then of the day, SS6 La Aldea – Mogán 2 – 17.83 km and it was a clean sweep of stage wins for Toyota and Kalle. Seb and Sami were second and third, whilst championship leader Elfyn was fourth in the stage but was firmly in third overall, a good twenty seconds ahead of Sami.
Let’s take a look at the top positions and hear from the drivers.
Classification after Day One
| 1 | K. Rovanperä | J. Halttunen | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 1:10:31.8 |
| 2 | S. Ogier | V. Landais | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +26.8 |
| 3 | E. Evans | S. Martin | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +36.4 |
| 4 | S. Pajari | M. Salminen | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +55.3 |
| 5 | T. Katsuta | A. Johnston | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +1:06.0 |
| 6 | T. Neuville | M. Wydaeghe | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +1:13.3 |
| 7 | O. Tänak | M. Järveoja | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +1:14.1 |
| 8 | A. Fourmaux | A. Coria | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +1:14.8 |
| 9 | G. Munster | L. Louka | Ford Puma Rally1 | +2:11.1 |
| 10 | Y. Rossel | A. Dunand | Citroën C3 | +2:50.7 |
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Kalle Rovanperä
“I’m really happy with today. Everything came together well, and it’s been a super day for the team overall. It seems we have done our preparation well and it meant we could just enjoy the driving and do a good job. The car is fast, I’m happy with the balance and I can drive it like I want, and our pacenotes have been good as well. Some sections of tomorrow’s stages will be a bit different in character to today, so we need to keep focused, see if we can make the car even better, and try to keep this up.”
Sébastien Ogier
“It’s been a very positive day for the whole team. To fill the top five places after day one is pretty impressive, so well done to our engineers and mechanics for the hard work, adapting to the new tyres as best as we can. Of course, I’m never 100 per cent happy to be second but Kalle was really flying today and there was no way we could match his pace. I think we made some improvements this afternoon in terms of feeling and pace, and we still have some ideas for tomorrow.”
Elfyn Evans
“It’s definitely been a great day for the team today. They’ve done a really good job preparing for this rally. On a personal note, I’m maybe not entirely satisfied and could have done with finding a bit more confidence with the car and a few more seconds to fight with Kalle and Seb, who have been doing a great job. I’m not quite able to follow them at the moment but we’ll try a few changes tonight. Tomorrow’s stages are maybe a bit more abrasive, so it could be a bit more difficult for the tyres, and we have to see what the weather does too.”
Sami Pajari
“Today has been really good and the position we’re in as a team at the end of it is very nice. Personally, I was not completely happy in the morning but then stage-by-stage the feeling has been getting better. In the afternoon we found quite a nice flow, and the times were even more competitive. Of course, when there’s still a bit of a gap to the front, then I’m always thinking about what we can improve so let’s see what we can do for tomorrow.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“It’s been a very nice day for the team. It’s an amazing effort by everybody in preparing the car for our first time here with the WRC. Personally, I’m not completely happy with myself and seem to be missing something, so I just need to improve the speed a little bit. I’m not able to be quite as smooth as you need to be on this kind of rally. Already in the afternoon we changed a few things, and it went in a better direction and hopefully we can find something more for tomorrow.”
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville
“It is a struggle to find positives from today; it has been tough, and a hard one to swallow. It was difficult to keep our motivation high, but we kept fighting. Martijn and I tried to work on the car between every stage, and we were able to gain two places. We are constantly improving bit by bit, and this afternoon with a bit of adapting to my driving style I was making it work, but we will need to fight for every position tomorrow and Sunday.”
Round 04, Rally Islas Canarias
24-27 April 2025
Photographer: Dufour Fabien
Worldwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Ott Tänak
“It is very difficult to enjoy the stages when you’re fighting so much out there, especially when you are down on speed and struggling to get the car working on these very specific roads. I think it’s a simple problem, but one that is difficult to fix. There’s not much we can do with the suspension or transmission, but we will try to find a way to be in a better position for Sunday.”
Adrien Fourmaux
“This morning was not perfect, but it was much better than this afternoon. I made a change to the set-up of the car to try and find more grip, but it really changes the balance. I was struggling with understeer that I didn’t have on the first loop, and I started to overheat the tyres. It’s frustrating to see the gap to the cars ahead, so as a team we will try to move in the right direction for the next two days.”
Oliver Solberg
“Today’s been a good day for learning – and that’s why we’re here on this event. We don’t take points in WRC2 from Spain, it’s all about understanding more from the car in Tarmac set-up.
“This morning I wasn’t able to take so much confidence from the car and we were still getting used to the new Hankook tyres. We made some changes at lunchtime service, and we were much happier straight away in the first stage of the afternoon.
“Launching the car off the line on the second stage [of the afternoon] we felt some issue with the transmission. We didn’t want to cause more damage, so we drove at reduced pace through the last two.
“I’m sure the team will be able to get everything sorted tonight, so we can come back for some more learning tomorrow.”
Saturday
The second day will see the crews tackle 124km’s over seven stages. Can the Hyundai crews fight back, or will we see the Toyota crews continue to dominate the top of the timesheets?
