What a whirlwind finish to the 2025 World Rally Championship season! Rally Saudi Arabia, the much-anticipated debut event on the calendar, set the stage for a dramatic showdown among the world’s top rally drivers. With the championship title hanging in the balance, every second and every stage carried immense weight for the contenders—Toyota teammates Sébastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans, and Kalle Rovanperä.
Heading into the final round, Evans clung to a slender three-point lead over Ogier, while Rovanperä, trailing by 24 points, still harbored a faint hope for a miracle. The Saudi Arabian landscape, with its punishing blend of sandy deserts and rocky mountain passes, proved to be a ruthless equalizer. The notorious road cleaning effect and relentless risk of punctures meant that even the most calculated strategies could be upended in a heartbeat.
The opening days saw all three Toyota drivers battling adversity. Evans, in particular, was dealt a cruel hand. On Friday, a puncture in stage 11 forced him to stop and change a wheel, costing him over two minutes and dropping him to 10th overall. "It wasn’t ideal what happened to us this morning. We got the tyre pressure alarm quite early in the third stage of the loop and with so far still to go we had to make the decision to stop and change it rather than try to drive on it. Thankfully we could make up some places this afternoon with others having issues and so it’s still quite open and it will all come down to tomorrow now," Evans reflected after the grueling day, as quoted by TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT.
Meanwhile, Ogier navigated the treacherous conditions with his trademark composure, even as he too suffered a double puncture in Friday’s final stage. "It’s been a demanding day. I knew that Elfyn had stopped in the last stage of the morning and took that stage a bit more carefully because of that, but it didn’t really change much about the championship: we still had to try and stay ahead of Kalle. We anticipated that this last stage of the day would be the roughest one of the weekend and I tried to have a careful rhythm there, but had this loss of tyre pressure at the end. At least we still have our destiny in our hands: tomorrow we hope to stay out of trouble and have to go for it," Ogier told reporters.
Rovanperä, the outgoing champion, was also in the thick of it, managing to climb to fifth despite his own puncture woes. With his switch to Super Formula circuit racing on the horizon, the young Finn was determined to leave his mark in his final WRC outing. "It’s been a long and tricky day. I tried to just be fast and avoid the trouble. The conditions were really tough already on the first pass; even with only four cars in front of us, we still had a lot of surprises and loose stones. The last stage of the loop was especially rough and that’s where everyone else started to get issues and we managed to make up some positions. The situation is still not in our favour but at least we are in the mix and we will just try to enjoy our final day tomorrow and go for it," Rovanperä shared.
But it wasn’t only the title race that had fans on the edge of their seats. Latvian driver Martins Sesks, returning to the WRC for the first time since Rally Finland, stunned the field by leading into the final day. Sesks’s measured approach on the punishing stages paid off, but a double puncture and technical issue on the last morning dashed his hopes, forcing an early retirement. "It is crazy. We were trying to be very smooth and safe on the last one and still we got a puncture. You just need to have luck because I was really focusing on the road and then there was a rock on the line and we hit it and got a puncture. Let’s see how it is [on Saturday]. So far, we have been doing our job as best as we can so we will keep trying. There are still chances for everything and there is 60 kilometres to go," Sesks said before his rally ended in heartbreak.
Adrien Fourmaux, another driver in the mix for a maiden WRC win, saw his hopes dashed by a one-minute penalty for checking into the final time control early, dropping him to fourth. Meanwhile, Takamoto Katsuta’s steady drive propelled him into a podium position as chaos unfolded around him.
The final day was set for a nail-biting finish. Evans, sitting eighth overall, knew the odds were stacked against him but refused to back down. "It looks like it is all going to come down to Saturday. It is quite straightforward I guess," Evans remarked before the showdown. "It looks like that and everything is still pretty close and in reach, so of course that has to be the plan. We have to give it the best shot we can. It is pretty clear we are going to have to go for it now." Ogier, for his part, recognized the stakes: "We still have our destiny in our hands and that is the only thing we can be happy with tonight. Tomorrow we hope to stay out of trouble, but we will have to go for it."
As the dust settled on the Saudi Arabian stages, it was Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville who emerged victorious in the rally, ending his 2025 WRC victory drought and heading a Hyundai 1-2. Ogier, finishing third, did exactly what he needed to secure a record-equalling ninth world title, matching Sébastien Loeb’s legendary tally. Evans’s valiant effort saw him win the Power Stage and claw back to sixth overall, but the deficit was too great to overcome. The final championship margin? Just four points—the closest Evans has come yet to that elusive maiden crown.
Ogier was quick to acknowledge the intensity of the season-long battle. "What a season that is for sure. What a fight with Elfyn and Scott Martin. There are only great champions when you have great opponents. They pushed us to the limit right until the final stage of the year," Ogier told Motorsport.com. Evans, reflecting on another near-miss, admitted, "There were probably a few too many key battles where I came off second best to really make the difference. Japan, Chile, Canaries against Séb especially. We probably were in the ballpark to take him on for the win and didn’t in the end come through. I think there’s many moments in the season where that point swing would have made a huge difference."
For Evans, the plan for 2026 is clear: "I think we have to take a bit more risk, but of course one of my strengths has always been my consistency and you know you can’t neglect that completely because at the end of the day there’s still three previous champions behind us in the championship, so it’s not all bad. But obviously Séb has been on another level to the rest of us this year and of course to try and take him on needs a bit more… perhaps a bit more aggression."
As the 2025 WRC season closes, the sport can look back on a campaign marked by unpredictability, resilience, and a championship battle that went right to the wire. With new faces emerging, legends cementing their status, and the promise of more drama in 2026, rally fans have plenty to look forward to.
