Thierry Neuville led a Hyundai 1-2 to claim his first win of the season at the chaotic Rally Saudi Arabia 2025, while Sebastien Ogier sealed an unprecedented ninth World Rally Championship title by finishing third.
The 14th and final round of the 2025 FIA World Rally Championship calendar, unfolded over brutal gravel stages north of Jeddah from November 25 to 29, marked by dust storms, punctures, rollovers, and penalties that reshaped the leaderboard repeatedly, turning what was billed as a high-stakes season finale into a test of endurance and opportunism for the top drivers.
The rally kicked off on Wednesday evening with the 5.22km Jameel Motorsport Super Special under the lights in Jeddah, a head-to-head asphalt duel serving as the curtain-raiser to the gravel onslaught ahead.
Hyundai’s Ott Tanak set the blistering pace, beating Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera by 2.5 seconds in their pair to grab the early lead, with his 1.2-second advantage over Sebastien Ogier enough to put the Estonian atop the timesheets in what marked his final WRC appearance before a 2026 sabbatical.
Ogier, trailing Elfyn Evans by just three points entering the event, edged his Toyota teammate in their heat by 0.9 seconds, a crucial psychological blow in the title fight, while Evans clocked the fifth-fastest time, 2.1 seconds off Tanak.
Reigning champion Thierry Neuville, enduring a winless title defense, finished strongly in fourth on the super special, expressing hope for a confidence-boosting result, as M-Sport’s returning Martins Sesks slotted in ahead of him.
Toyota’s Sami Pajari, Adrien Fourmaux, Takamoto Katsuta, and Gregoire Munster rounded out the top 10, with Nasser Al-Attiyah hampered by a 10-second jump-start penalty dropping him outside the top 20.
Thursday’s opening leg plunged the field into sweeping, dusty gravel stages north of Jeddah, where visibility issues and rocky terrain quickly exposed vulnerabilities among the title contenders.
Martins Sesks stunned the paddock by dominating the morning loop of four brutal stages, leading 2025 Rally Saudi Arabia after an astonishing performance in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta that left the three championship protagonists—Evans, Ogier, and Rovanpera—toiling in the dust.
Adrien Fourmaux wrested the lead by Thursday night after a chaotic day featuring multiple off-road excursions and tire dramas, as he held a slender advantage into the evening super special repeat.
Meanwhile Ogier inched ahead of Evans in the drivers’ standings thanks to consistent top-five stage times despite the grueling heat and loose surfaces.
Tanak remained competitive but suffered early setbacks, Pajari showed flashes of speed in his rookie Toyota campaign, Katsuta held midfield, and Neuville methodically climbed without major errors, as the leg highlighted the rally’s unpredictability with retirements and delays plaguing lower-order runners.
Friday intensified the four-way scrap at the front with Fourmaux resisting mounting pressure from Sesks, Pajari, and Tanak closing in relentlessly during the mid-leg service interval, as punctures and navigation errors began claiming scalps across the pack.
Fourmaux maintained his grip through the afternoon loops, but a one-minute time penalty for checking into the evening technical zone early tumbled him to fourth overall, handing Sesks the outright lead heading into Saturday and amplifying the chaos in a rally already notorious for its punishing desert stages.
Ogier continued his measured title defense, staying out of trouble to edge Evans further in the battle for the 2025 WRC championship title, while Rovanpera battled understeer and dust-induced mistakes.
Neuville shadowed the leaders without forcing the pace, and Katsuta consolidated a top-five position amid the attrition. Tanak’s punctures foreshadowed his woes while Pajari’s aggressive pushes kept him in podium contention despite a Friday tire delamination.
Saturday’s decisive final leg erupted into pandemonium on SS16 where Martins Sesks, leading by a slim margin, endured two punctures followed by a technical gremlin that forced his retirement before the power stage.
The setback catapulted Thierry Neuville into the lead after he outpaced the Latvian by 5.4 seconds on the opener to go 2.0 seconds clear initially.
Neuville proceeded to lead penalty stricken teammate Adrien Fourmaux by 54.7 seconds to claim Hyundai 1-2 overall victory at the Rally Saudi Arabia 2025.
Meanwhile Kalle Rovanpera’s puncture stop handed Sebastien Ogier a vital third place from sixth, securing the extra points to claim the 2025 WRC championship title over Elfyn Evans, who fought valiantly but fell short by four points overall.
“What a season that is for sure,” said Ogier. “What a fight with Elfyn and Scott Martin. There are only great champions when you have great opponents. They pushed us to the limit right until the final stage of the year.”
Pajari recovered from his earlier woes to claim fourth as Takamoto Katsuta veered wide into soft sand and rolled his Toyota, plummeting from third to fifth gifting positions galore to his rivals.
Evans finished sixth ahead of Rovanpera, with M-Sport’s Gregoire Munster and Josh McErlean following in eighth and ninth, as Rally2 frontrunner Oliver Solberg rounded out the top ten.
Ott Tanak, sidelined by Friday’s double punctures, retired strategically for service time but reflected gratefully on his career, prioritizing family after missing milestones like his daughter’s birthdays.
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