TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team (TGR-WRT) drivers Elfyn Evans, Sébastien Ogier, and Kalle Rovanperä are set to compete for the world championship title at the final round of the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship. The event, Rally Saudi Arabia, will take place from November 26 to 29 and marks the first time the WRC visits this country.
TGR-WRT has achieved 12 wins out of 13 rounds this season, matching the record for most victories by a manufacturer in a single season. The team has already secured its fifth consecutive manufacturers’ title. Now, three TGR-WRT crews will compete exclusively for both drivers’ and co-drivers’ championships.
Elfyn Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin lead the standings after a consistent season with two wins and six additional podiums. Sébastien Ogier is just three points behind following his win at Rally Japan. Ogier aims for a ninth world championship title, while his co-driver Vincent Landais could secure his first. Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen also remain in contention for what would be their third world titles; Rovanperä trails by 24 points as he prepares for his last WRC start before moving to single-seater circuit racing next year with support from TGR.
Other TGR entries include Takamoto Katsuta with Aaron Johnston and Sami Pajari with Marko Salminen. Pajari and Salminen recently celebrated their first WRC podium at Rally Japan.
For this concluding round, all four main TGR-WRT cars will use a silver livery previously featured during European summer rallies. The lighter color is intended to reflect sunlight and help keep cars and crews cooler amid Saudi Arabia’s heat conditions.
The rally is based in Jeddah, where teams face unfamiliar terrain including mountains, volcanoes, deserts, smooth gravel roads with hard bases, softer desert stretches, and rough rocky areas. These varied conditions require careful adjustments in car setup and driving style to balance speed with reliability.
The service park is located near the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. The event begins on Wednesday evening with an asphalt super special stage close by. This stage repeats at Thursday’s end after two loops of three stages north of Jeddah. Friday features the longest distance—141.72 competitive kilometers—over another two loops of three stages. The rally concludes Saturday with three tests including two passes through Thahban; the second pass serves as the Power Stage that may decide the championship outcome.
Nine GR Yaris Rally2 cars are entered for Rally Saudi Arabia—the largest representation by any model in this event. Among them is current WRC2 champion Oliver Solberg who drives a Printsport-entered car ahead of joining TGR-WRT’s top-tier squad in 2026.
Deputy Team Principal Juha Kankkunen said: “Rally Saudi Arabia is going to be very interesting as the final round of the championship. It’s so close now between Elfyn and Seb, and I’m sure it will be a big fight between them. Kalle still has a chance as well, and on a new rally like this, anything could happen. We do have some information from the Middle East championship event this year and from what I’ve heard, there should be quite a mix of different stages, with sections similar to roads we have in Greece and other parts that are more open through the desert. There can also be a lot of new things that the team and drivers will need to adapt to during the event. Our goal is to give a strong car to all of our drivers that allows them to fight, and we’ll see which one of them becomes the world champion.”
Evans commented: “We go to Saudi Arabia knowing that everything is still to play for and very open in the championship. Seb is a tough opponent and performing at a really high level, and Kalle cannot be counted out at this stage either. It will be tough, but we’re going to give it our best shot of course. Nobody really knows what to expect from this event. None of the drivers have done it before and many of the stages are completely new anyway, so it’s basically a clean sheet for all of us. We just have to arrive there, focus on doing the best rally we can, and see what comes.”
Rovanperä added: “For us the championship is not really in our hands anymore but we still have a chance, so let’s see how it goes in Saudi Arabia. The stages look to be quite tricky with a lot of rocks around, so there could be a fairly big chance of something happening for any of the drivers. All that we can do is focus on trying to do a good job and get a good result for ourselves, and we would still need the others to have a bad result. Whatever happens, hopefully we can make it a good last rally to finish this chapter in a nice way.”
Ogier stated: “It was an intense battle with Elfyn for the win at Rally Japan and it was good for us to close the gap in the championship before the final round. It’s been a strong year, I’m happy with the performance we’ve had and I’ve really enjoyed driving the car. Hopefully this all-new rally can be a good and exciting finale for the championship. Nobody has much experience of what the stages are like there, so there can be potential for surprises.”
Takamoto Katsuta shared: “I’m looking forward to discovering Rally Saudi Arabia for the first time… It could be quite like Kenya in some places… That has suited me well in past events but we need see what it’s like when we get there.”
Sami Pajari noted: “It was really nice achieve our first podium finish at Rally Japan… Now we have something completely new end year Saudi Arabia… I would guess might quite like Kenya ways – there took steady approach paid off end good result – but need wait see exactly challenges face.”
Further details about routes or updates on results during or after competition may become available via official sources such as www.wrc.com.
