TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team and Sébastien Ogier are celebrating yet another Rally de Portugal victory after winning a demanding fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship season.
It is a fifth win from five events in 2025 for TGR-WRT and the team’s sixth successive Portugal triumph in a run dating back to 2019. For Ogier it’s a seventh win in the country, one year after breaking the long-standing record of Markku Alén.
Portugal was the first of three consecutive hot and rough gravel rallies in the south of Europe that test cars, tyres and drivers. The first full day of the rally on Friday was one of the longest of the season so far with 10 stages punctuated only by two brief remote service halts, and Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais finished it in second place just seven seconds from the lead.
Through Saturday, Ogier battled closely with rival Ott Tänak (Hyundai) and took the lead after his opponent was slowed by an issue in the rough afternoon conditions. He carefully managed his advantage through a relatively long Sunday and ultimately sealed victory by 8.7 seconds.
Kalle Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen completed a double podium in third place. While they couldn’t hold off Tänak on the final day, they did take second in the Super Sunday classification and third in the Power Stage to gain valuable extra points for the championship.
Takamoto Katsuta and his navigator Aaron Johnston finished fifth having once again shown stage-winning pace and been part of a close battle for a podium place in Portugal.
Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin moved up to sixth overall and took fifth on Super Sunday to secure valuable points from a challenging weekend after sweeping the road through Friday. Evans continues to lead the drivers’ championship by 30 points over Rovanperä with Ogier a further two points back. TGR-WRT increases its manufacturers’ championship lead to 55 points.
Sami Pajari produced a strong weekend to finish seventh in his TGR-WRT2 entry along with co-driver Marko Salminen, continuing to gain valuable experience in his first full season at the highest level.
The GR Yaris Rally2 car won a highly competitive WRC2 category in 10th overall in the hands of Oliver Solberg along with co-driver Elliott Edmondson and the Printsport team.
Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)
“Congratulations to Seb and Vincent for winning Rally Portugal for the second year in a row! It was a rally where we were all impressed once again by Seb’s adaptability. This was Seb’s first gravel rally in a long while, and his first event with the Hankook gravel tyres. Moreover, he had only one day of testing in the rain prior to the rally. He had a hard time in the early stages this weekend, but he quickly found a way to improve and moved up to the top positions. I’m also very grateful to all the engineers and mechanics who immediately responded to Seb’s feedback. His feedback gave new insights to everyone, and the whole team became even stronger. There are six more gravel rounds coming including Rally Finland, which is an important home event for us. We hope to make use of what we learned here in Portugal and drive our new silver-coloured GR YARIS Rally1 through the summer gravel rallies that await us from here on! Let’s all stay healthy and continue our best!”
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“It has been another good weekend for our team in Portugal. One could perhaps say we were a bit fortunate to come away with the victory this time because we were maybe not the fastest here – but, at the same time, all of our cars reached the finish without any major issues and in a good position and this is also what rallying is about when the conditions are tough. The reliability is there and the team is working hard together with the drivers to optimise the setup with the new tyres. Seb did an excellent job once again and to come away with another victory and some good points across the board, we have to be happy with that.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s not been an easy weekend for us and I’m quite relieved to be at the end. Obviously opening the road on Friday was tough for us but we were also missing quite a bit of performance especially from the middle of Friday onwards. We haven’t collected as many points as we would have liked so it’s been a frustrating weekend, and now we just have to work to try and be better on the next rally in Sardinia.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“It’s been a long and difficult weekend but any time you can finish on the podium is not bad, especially considering the road cleaning we faced running second on the road on Friday. In the end we were able to catch some good points for the championship. I was a bit disappointed that we couldn’t have a bit more pace today in our fight for second place with a better starting position, so we are still missing something and need to keep working for the next rallies.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“It feels fantastic to win again here in Portugal. It’s been a very demanding and exhausting week but to get this win for the team and for ourselves is something that was really worth all the effort. It was a tough fight with Ott and I don’t think we had the pure speed to win without his issue, but rallying is not only about being quick. There were very rough conditions on the second pass of stages and with a strong car and a clever approach we were able to take the opportunity, so thank you to the team.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It has been a very demanding weekend but I think it was not a bad one for us. The car was working well and I felt comfortable and we had good pace at the beginning of the rally. I’m pleased to finish the rally in fifth position; of course I would have liked more but there were a lot of things to learn about the new tyres especially and I can see that we have the potential to be better.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It has been a good, clean weekend for us and exactly what we wanted. Our plan was to get more experience on this kind of more twisty gravel roads with the Rally1 car and try to have some solid, consistent speed. That’s what we were able to do, with no big mistakes or issues, so I’m really happy with that. A big thanks to the team and let’s try to continue like this in Sardinia.”
PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLY DE PORTUGAL
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 3h48m35.9s
2 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +8.7s
3 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +12.2s
4 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +38.5s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1m41.9s
6 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m31.0s
7 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m38.3s
8 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +5m12.3s
9 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1) +5m57.5s
10 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +9m15.1s
(Results as of 14:15 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 5:
1 Elfyn Evans 118 points
2 Kalle Rovanperä 88
3 Sébastien Ogier 86
4 Ott Tänak 84
5 Thierry Neuville 78
6 Takamoto Katsuta 51
7 Adrien Fourmaux 44
8 Sami Pajari 25
9 Grégoire Munster 18
10 Josh McErlean 12
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 5:
1 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 258 points
2 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 203
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 72
4 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT2 36
What’s next?
Rally Italia Sardegna (June 5-8) features fast but narrow gravel stages, where exposed rocks as well as trees at the side of the road can catch out the unwary. High temperatures combined with the abrasive surface places high stresses on the cars and tyres.
