Toyota swept the top four positions, with Kalle Rovanperä taking a dominant victory, Sébastien Ogier finishing second, championship leader Elfyn Evans claiming third, and Takamoto Katsuta completing the clean sweep in fourth.
Of course, rally success always depends on the drivers, but this time, the Toyota drivers also had the perfect machinery underneath them. Main rival Hyundai failed to get their car working at all on Spain’s asphalt roads.
Adrien Fourmaux was the best-placed Hyundai driver, finishing fifth. Ott Tänak had to settle for sixth, and reigning world champion Thierry Neuville ended up in seventh.
Toyota’s deputy team principal Juha Kankkunen said the result in the Canaries was down not only to Toyota’s success with their car but also to Hyundai’s poor preparation.
“Hyundai didn’t do their homework,” Kankkunen told RallyJournal.com bluntly.
“Their tyres didn’t work. That played the biggest part. Their tyres didn’t match the car, while ours did. That was the key difference,” Kankkunen continued.
Hyundai’s struggles were visible to the naked eye. Their drivers had to work hard to wrestle their cars around, while the Toyota drivers’ performances looked smooth and almost effortless. The issue wasn’t down to driver error – at least, not solely.
“In just a few weeks, no engineer can build a car so badly that it suddenly becomes completely uncompetitive,” Kankkunen said.
