Day 1 Highlights | WRC Rally Saudi Arabia 2025

Three drivers, 17 stages, one prize. Elvin Evans, Sebogier and Kalarov and Pera start the final round of the 2025 World Rally Championship with the goal of being crowned Drivers' Champion. But first, they need to tame the perilous, rugged roads of Saudi Arabia. Even during shakedown, championship leader and four-time vice champion Elvin Evans got an unwelcome taste of the looming danger ahead. A rock lodged itself in his Toyota's sump guard, but thankfully, the damage was only cosmetic, allowing the Welshman to go head to head with second place Sebogier on the opening super special stage in Jeddah. What a battle it's going to be this weekend. But as I said, right now, this is a this is a psychological battle. History favours Ogier in the fight for the title. The eight-time world champion has only missed out on the WRC's ultimate prize once before when given the opportunity. He and co-driver Vincent Lande took first blood and half a second over Evans and Scott Martin on stage one. But with such rough conditions expected from day two onwards, both Evans and Ogier know just staying on the road will be critical in the fight for the championship. Getting to the end of the one year, I think that's already a challenge. Normally, if you look at only this rally, but of course, you know, we're going to have to drive well, but also drive with our heads this weekend. And let's let's see how it all unfolds. We'll give it the best show we can. Are you excited about tomorrow? Oh, yeah, we'll try our best. I think we've missed it a thousand times already. Tough weekend ahead, but we are focused. Their teammate and title contender Rovan Perra was top of the timesheets during shakedown, and the Finn will need to do the same across the board this weekend if he's to stand any chance of claiming a third drivers championship. Only a dominant win and trouble for his rivals would provide a path to victory. But Rovan Perra and co-driver Jonna Houtman will need a better feeling in the car to mount a worthy charge on day two. This one was pretty disgusting driving line. Crazy amount of understeer and felt just horrible all the time. But let's hope tomorrow trouble is better. Both Rovan Perra and Oittanik will be leaving the WRC behind in 2026. The pair dueling for early bragging rights in the darkness of stage one. The Estonian and co-driver Martin Järviöö had nothing to lose in Saudi Arabia and left nothing on the table either. Topping the leaderboard by 1.2 seconds over Ogier and setting out their intentions as they aim to bow out on a high. Latvian Livewire Martin's Cesc's returns to Rally 1 Machinery for the first time since August. And the M Sport 4 driver was honest about his lack of familiarity with the Puma after shakedown. We were taking it really steady because I haven't been in the car since Finland, which is how many months? Yeah, quite much so. Yeah, and this morning when we came to sit in the car, it was like, oh, wow, what these buttons do. But despite not knowing exactly which buttons to press, Cesc's raw instinct for when and where to hit the throttle was still intact, as he and co-driver Renars Francis went fastest of the M Sport 4 crews and third overall on stage one. Reigning World Champions Thierry Nerville and Martin Veitega will hand over their number one by the end of Saturday. But spirits were high as they aimed to end their season on top of the podium. An end, a frustrating, winless streak, heading into Thursday two seconds off the lead. After stage one, Tanek leads ahead of Ogier with Cesc's in third. Nerville lies fourth, whilst Evans completes the top five.