Kalle Rovanpera found answers to unlock speed on new WRC tyres

Kalle Rovanpera believes he’s started to unlock the secrets to speed on the new-for-2025 World Rally Championship tyres after dominating Friday morning to lead Rally Islas Canarias.

The two-time world champion has endured a surprisingly slow start to the season having struggled to adapt his driving style to the new Hankook rubber that has contributed to the Finn being 57-points adrift in the championship fight.  

However, the Toyota driver, yet to score a podium this year, reversed the formbook in stunning fashion, winning all three Friday morning stages, held on smooth asphalt roads to lead eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier by 17.8s. Championship leader Elfyn Evans sat third, a further 2.4s in arrears. 

“It was definitely a good morning for us,” said Rovanpera. “It felt pretty normal in the car, nothing too crazy, but that is how it should be on these roads, you just need to have a good flow. You cannot overdrive it, and it seems the car is working very well for us.”

When pressed to explain what has changed compared to the start of the season, he added: “I think we have found some ideas and a way to go with the car, especially with these new tyres, and I think that makes the biggest difference. 

“Of course now we have all-new stages and notes [in the Canary Islands] and I think we have done a pretty good job with those because even in the first pass I feel quite comfortable going on the twisty roads that are normally pretty difficult.

“I cannot really say any particular things [have changed], it is just overall getting the balance where I normally want it, where we struggled much more in the beginning of the season. Now, when we have been doing some work we have been getting better.”

Ogier, renowned for his pace on asphalt, admitted Rovanpera was in ‘a different league’ and had no answer to his team-mate’s speed.  

“He [Kalle] is definitely the man of the moment and he has been in his own league this morning. I have no answer to match his speed at the moment,” said Ogier.

“It has been an okay morning for me, but I’m still not 100% happy with the balance of the car and learning this tyre, but we have some ideas for the afternoon.” 

Hyundai perplexed by severe lack of pace

While Toyota occupied the top three positions, rivals Hyundai surprisingly suffered a severe lack of pace and the team is unsure as to why it is so far behind the Japanese marque.

Adrien Fourmaux emerged as the best of the Hyundais in fourth [+34.2s] while eighth-placed Ott Tanak [+42.9s] and Thierry Neuville, in ninth, [+45.4s} were left shocked by the struggles they were facing to extract speed from their upgraded 2025 i20 N Rally1 cars.

“We have understeer, it [the car] is missing everything so you can’t drive fast you can’t attack,” said the reigning champion Neuville, who had shown pace during the Rally Sierra Morena test rally on asphalt earlier this month.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“I don’t know if I know the solution right now, I don’t think anybody does, so I will try to stay calm. It is not really a surprise but the struggle is bigger than it has been before.”

Team-mate Tanak explained that understeer was at the core of his problems, with his car working the front tyres too hard. 

“We somehow know where the issue is coming from, but why it is showing up so strongly on this upgraded chassis compared to the previous car is still difficult to explain,” said the 2019 world champion.

“When we see the times we are quite far [from the solution]. It is surprising because two weeks ago in the south of Spain [test] it seemed to work ok,” added Hyundai technical director Francois-Xavier Demaison.

“There is something we have changed and maybe we were too confident after the rally. There is something that is not working the same way here.”