The WRC title fights are intensifying as the season switches back to asphalt
Photography by Toyota, Hyundai & M-Sport
Words by Luke Barry
We’ve not exaclty been short of news in the World Rally Championship lately, have we?
But five weeks between rounds of the championship is too long in our book. Thankfully, that’s put right this week with Central European Rally the location as the WRC breathes back into life after its South American leg. Japan and Saudi Arabia follow in the weeks after.
But let’s forget them for a moment. As we look ahead to this week’s tri-nation event in Germany, Austria and Czech, these are the important questions round 12 should answer.
Sébastien Ogier is on for a 100% podium record in 2025 after completing eight rounds of the championship so far, but we’ve seen far more of him on gravel than Tarmac.
Can Ogier keep up the same momentum in Central Europe – a rally he’s never finished on the podium at before?
In 2023 a puncture wrecked his hopes of a stronger finish than fourth, while last year the Toyota driver was just 1.5 seconds shy of Ott Tänak’s lead before famously crashing on the penultimate stage.
The stakes are different this time as he’s got a drivers’ championship to focus on – a championship he currently leads. And preparation at last weekend’s Herbst Rallye in Austria leaves him well prepared for a potentially decisive event in that battle.
Historically, CER is Hyundai’s playground. On the two previous visits, Toyota is yet to win. But lest we forget how badly the last Tarmac event, Rally Islas Canarias, went for the i20s.
CER is of course a different style of Tarmac running in a very different season, but attention will be on whether Hyundai can match Toyota for pace this week. And of course whether Ott Tänak will prove faster than his team-mates running a different specification of car.
Having been delisted from manufacturers’ points responsibility, Tänak will not only take a fresh engine this week but he’s also using the Monte Carlo-spec Hyundai, with Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux driving the car driven in Canarias.
Watch the times of Tänak and Neuville in particular on Friday, with the pair starting just one car apart in the order.
He’s been threatening it for a while, but will Central Europe be the place Adrien Fourmaux takes a long-awaited maiden victory in the WRC?
He’s not short on preparation, having taken part in both Croatia Rally and Austria’s Herbst Rallye in each of the past two weekends, and has finished as the highest (and fastest) Hyundai driver on both asphalt events so far in 2025.
But perhaps the question is more Fourmaux’s opportunity over ability.
To win, Fourmaux needs a car to do so and also a team that is willing for him to do so. With Tänak’s drivers’ championship Hyundai’s key title focus, might Fourmaux be asked to cede position to the Estonian should he find himself ahead – even if they are running first and second?
Ogier has hogged the limelight (and rightly so) after moving into the championship lead, but Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans is just two points behind! This thing is far from done yet.
Evans has failed to finish higher, or outscore, Ogier on any of the events they’ve both started in 2025 though, so he needs a big response in CER to apply the pressure onto the ominous Ogier.
Can he? His CER record is good and his Japan record even better with back-to-back victories in 2023 and ’24, and we’ve not seen a lot of Evans vs Ogier on Tarmac in effectively equal conditions.
But if Evans wants to hit back, he needs to do it now.
Now that the cat is out of the bag so to speak with Kalle Rovanperä’s rallying exit and circuit racing switch for 2026 public knowledge, will he drive with total freedom with effectively nothing to lose but everything to gain in rounding out his WRC spell with a third world title?
Well, he’s currently 21 points adrift of team-mate Ogier so does have some catching up to do, and does head to Central Europe with a handicap.
While all of Rovanperä’s Rally1 rivals have contested both editions of the event, Rovanperä missed last year’s trip and therefore has less experience and knowledge of the stages.
The good news however is plenty of the itinerary is different to 2024. There are four brand-new stages included, while several of last year’s tests have been dropped and some of 2023’s brought back.
Chile was not Munster’s peak result this season, but it was probably his most complete performance. There wasn’t a lot left on the shelf for the Luxembourger to grab.
The significance is he’d done the rally twice before in a Rally1 car – and the same is true of this week’s Central European Rally.
In fact statistically this is Munster’s strongest rally, with a seventh and fifth place finish in 2023 and ’24. Expecting that to go up by another increment of two (to third) in 2025 might be a touch ambitious, but it’s certainly fair to expect another strong weekend where Munster outperforms M-Sport team-mate Josh McErlean.
We’ll soon find out if he can.
In a similar vein to Munster, Sami Pajari has produced his best performances of the season on rallies he’s done before in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. Finland and Chile both went well, so will CER?
The formbook is inconclusive. Last year’s event ended in a roll and the pace was (understandably) conservative, but Pajari was rapid at Islas Canarias earlier this year.
The issue is he crashed there too – and the Monte at the top of the year. Pajari is therefore yet to finish a Tarmac rally in a Rally1 machine, so that’ll have to be his number one goal this week.
With the championship wrapped up by Oliver Solberg in Chile, interest in WRC2 will naturally wane for the rest of the season.
And in CER things aren’t off to a good start, with just nine cars registered to score points.
While there could be a big battle (and the opportunity for a new winner) in a field featuring the likes of Nikolay Gryazin, Alejandro Cachón, Roberto Daprà, Jan Černý and Filip Mareš, the entry is lacking strength in depth.
For you statisticians out there, the WRC2 entry has never been as low as this since Rally Japan 2023 – and on a European round, not since Monte Carlo 2019 where there were also two additional cars (Kalle Rovanperä and Gus Greensmith) competing in WRC2 Pro.
The far more interesting support category this week is Junior WRC, which as ever has gone down to the wire.
With double points on offer, as well as a bonus point per each stage win, 68 points can still be claimed at the season finale – meaning five drivers are mathematically in title contention.
Taylor Gill and Mille Johansson are the clear favorites however. Gill leads the way on 100 points to Johansson’s 86, with Acropolis winner Ali Türkkan on 65 and Finland winner Eamonn Kelly 60.
Will the FIA Rally Star driver prosper just like Romet Jürgenson 12 months ago? Will the Junior ERC champion Johansson get the job done, or will there be a major upset? In five days’ time, we’ll have our answer.
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Central European Rally, Central European Rally 2025, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date October 14, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/10/WE9SFcha-OGIER12CER24TB203-780x520.jpg October 14, 2025
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