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FIA continued tradition of elevating long standing ERC rounds to WRC. For 2025 it was turn for Canary Island (locally known as Rally Islas Canarias) to take the step up and replace tarmac event on mainland, Rally Catalunya. Given that Spanish resorts have recently been critical of over-tourism and anti-tourism movements have gained ground, hosting a WRC event in tightly packed resort island is an odd decision from FIA.
Event is run entirely on tarmac and as islands are far south, off coast of Africa, climate is quite warm even in late April. Event has long tradition, having been run annually since 1977. Past winners do include some notables like Carlos Sainz, Piero Liatti, Gustavo Trelles, Jesus Puras, Gilles Panizzi and Didier Auriol (most of whom are WRC winners on their own right).
Stages are smooth and flowing but twisty enough so that average speeds are kept in check. Road cutting is not common here, meaning that running order was quite equal between drivers. All this also meant that first event in 2025 was very uneventful, almost boring procession.
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| 2025:
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Rovanpera, Kalle
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Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
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103.50 km/h
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Generally, stages are smooth and very much like racing track, as seen here. It requires perfectly working car, which was Hyundai's undoing during inaugural 2025 edition and smooth tarmac driving skill.
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Older, more worn tarmac can be seen on this hairpin which Joshua McErlean is tackling through.
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Roads in Canarias can be very twisty too. This particularly extreme example is from road section, evident from seeing two cars on picture.
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Driver wins
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Rovanpera, Kalle (1)
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Manufacturer wins
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Toyota (1)
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