Yet another Sébastien Ogier was vitally important for a title race which is beginning to narrow
Photography by Toyota, Hyundai & M-Sport
Words by Luke Barry
The World Rally Championship’s South American leg is now over, and the championship picture is becoming ever clearer.
Mathematically, five men remain. Realistically, it’s three – perhaps even two.
Here’s what we learned from Rally Chile 2025:
Why start this off with an easy question? Truthfully, such a subjective debate doesn’t really have a place in a ‘what we learned’ column, and will be far better answered at the conclusion of 2025 if Ogier does draw level with Loeb as a nine-time world champion.
But it’s starting to look like when, not if.
Elfyn Evans did all he could to battle his team-mate, finishing a close second and making him work hard for the win in Chile. But Ogier was a cut above yet again.
Five wins, eight podiums from eight starts and now the lead of the championship at the precise moment where running first on the road is a good thing (with two Tarmac rounds up next), you’d be brave to bet against Ogier pulling off the improbable now.
It’s easy to forget that this rally wasn’t initially Ogier’s. As well as Evans, Adrien Fourmaux, Ott Tänak and Kalle Rovanperä all had turns in the lead before the Frenchman took over.
Rovanperä will fly home the angriest of that bunch, as this was a lead squandered. “Braking on the limit” and losing the rear, the Finn ran up a bank, debeaded a tire, leaked a minute and couldn’t manage better than sixth.
Compared to Tänak (more on him next) this was nowhere near as disastrous in terms of his championship challenge, but with Evans remaining metronomically consistent and Ogier in this rich vein of form, Rovanperä couldn’t afford to compromise himself.
His deficit of 21 points is recoverable, but not if he can’t string it all together.
In Ott Tänak’s position, you’d be ridiculous not to keep fighting while the math is still on your side. However with 43 points to make up, against a force as dominant as Toyota is right now, you’d have to say it would take something rather remarkable for this to swing Tänak’s way.
How prophetic could those images of Tänak sitting on the hillside prove after his engine had let go while leading in Chile? It was reminiscent of that Sweet Lamb moment seven years ago, when the then Toyota driver’s epic championship comeback was undone by a harsh landing.
To rub salt into the wounds, Tänak is potentially staring down the barrel of a five-minute penalty for a new engine at CER too, with one unit now “kaput” and the other producing “Rally2 power”.
At least now he has nothing to lose. But for a born winner like Tänak, that’s no crumb of comfort.
He could’ve won in 2023. He arguably should’ve won in 2024. But in 2025 it all came good, and Oliver Solberg can finally call himself WRC2 champion.
What else can we really say that we’ve not waxed lyrical about before? Five wins speaks volumes.
Really the job was done in Paraguay, recovering a minute with that epic comeback from a puncture. Chile was the coronation, and he crowned himself in the best possible way: with a win.
What does this mean for his future? As Solberg himself quipped: “That’s Monday’s problem.” For now, he and the rest of the Solberg family will toast an achievement that’s thoroughly well deserved, and will not go unnoticed.
Was this the performance of the rally? No.
But was this absolutely the performance Grégoure Munster needed? Yes.
The Luxembourger has been compared a lot (often unfavourably) to his Rally1 rookie team-mate Josh McErlean this season, but here Munster put him in the shade.
McErlean made a mess of his weekend with an SS1 mistake while Munster kept out of trouble throughout, giving it his all to try and beat Takamoto Katsuta. In the end he fell short, but that wasn’t necessarily a direct reflection on Munster’s driving.
A bad weekend in Chile would’ve been detrimental to his reputation as it was an event he’d started twice before in Rally1 machinery, but Munster delivered. Let’s see if he can do the same in CER – a rally he’s also done twice before in a Puma.
Sami Pajari’s got the dream ticket but not always had the golden chance in 2025. Under strict instruction to finish and get experience, it’s been hard to really read his speed.
Chile put that right. He may have fallen short of his pre-event wish to snare a podium, but he never stopped trying – almost beating the reigning world champion on merit and bettering his two-time champion team-mate Rovanperä on the powerstage.
What was perhaps most impressive though was his dogged determination. Constantly reminded of his inexperience relative to his rivals, Pajari didn’t care. Neuville’s ahead? “He shouldn’t be.”
That indicates his hunger, and better still this sort of result could become far more regular as he managed it on a rally he’d done before in Rally1. That bodes well for CER as well as 2026.
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Rally Chile, Rally Chile 2025, What we learned, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date September 15, 2025 DirtFish
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