Kalle Rovanperä was quickest on the final shakedown of the year in a Toyota 1-2-3
Photography by Toyota
Words by Luke Barry
Kalle Rovanperä was the fastest driver on shakedown – the drivers’ very first taste of Rally Saudi Arabia – but there was a scare for championship leader Elfyn Evans.
A brand-new event to the World Rally Championship calendar, and also the season finale, Evans, Sébastien Ogier and Rovanperä all have a shot at becoming drivers’ champion on Saturday.
Rovanperä has the longest odds with a 24-point deficit to Evans, but the Finn – on his last event before switching to Super Formula in 2026 – set the pace on the Saudi Arabian shakedown; half a second up on his Toyota team-mate Takamoto Katsuta.
“Obviously it’s going to be a really tough weekend for the cars, for the tires, for the drivers,” said Rovanperä, who was aware of the occasion.
“It’s going to be an emotional weekend,” he added, “but we just try to have fun, and try to have the best final result we can. We’ll go for the win and do what we can to have the best weekend.”
Rovanperä’s title rivals Evans and Ogier were third and ninth respectively, but perhaps most tellingly Evans was just 10th after the first pass – suggesting road cleaning could hurt him on Thursday’s opening leg.
However of bigger concern was a rock lodging itself in his Toyota’s sump guard on a later run.
“When we don’t know where we got it, then [it’s a concern],” Evans told DirtFish. “But it’s part of this rally I guess. When we have to survive 300km and there’s damage after only 5km, it’s something to keep an eye on.”
Ogier was 3.5s off the pace, and not thrilled to be settling the championship at such an unpredictable rally.
“Expect the unexpected,” he said. “It’s not really the place we would like to fight the final but we need to make the best of what we can control, There will be many parameters we can’t control this weekend but the plan is to stay out of trouble and we’ll see.”
Evans was a second off Rovanperä’s benchmark, half a second down on Katsuta.
Adrien Fourmaux was the fastest Hyundai, joking that his body was adjusting from leaving a European winter.
“I think we’re going to have to be smart in some places to make sure we don’t damage the car,” he predicted. “I think we’re going to have trouble, everybody, so we’re going to play with it.”
Ott Tänak was 0.2s adrift of his team-mate in fifth, but unlike Rovanperä had “no emotion” about this potentially being his final WRC rally.
“For sure it’s an incredibly demanding rally, lots of surprises so we need to be prepared for everything,” he added.
On his first WRC start since August’s Rally Finland, Mãrtiņš Sesks was the quickest of the M-Sport Fords, setting the exact same time as both Tänak and Toyota driver Sami Pajari.
Outgoing world champion Thierry Neuville was eighth quickest, two tenths shy of the tied trio ahead but 0.9s clear of Ogier’s championship-chasing Toyota.
Josh McErlean was 10th, 0.2s ahead of Nasser Al-Attiyah who has never driven a Rally1 car before but is a 20-time Middle East Rally champion.
“First time I drove this car on gravel, it’s so amazing,” Al-Attiyah said. “I am really so happy to compete in this race. I will try to do my best. I wish [I can get a podium], this would be my dream.”
Grégoire Munster rounded out the Rally1 runners, 4.9s adrift of Al-Attiyah and 9.1s off the pace.
Oliver Solberg’s Toyota GR Yaris was the pace-setting Rally2 machine.
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Rally Saudi Arabia, Rally Saudi Arabia 2025, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date November 26, 2025 DirtFish
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