At no point was Hyundai able to match the intense pace set by Toyota. The Japanese manufacturer ultimately swept the top four positions, with Kalle Rovanperä taking victory ahead of Sébastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans, and Takamoto Katsuta.
Had it not been for Sami Pajari’s driving error on Saturday, things could have looked even worse for Hyundai.
Hyundai drivers – especially Thierry Neuville and Ott Tänak – struggled with car setup throughout the weekend. They simply couldn’t get the balance right. Adrien Fourmaux was the top Hyundai finisher in fifth, Tänak came in sixth, and reigning champion Neuville only managed seventh place.
“Rally Islas Canarias was a difficult rally for us,” Hyundai’s technical director François-Xavier Demaison admitted bluntly.
“It became an intensive test session where we tried a lot of different things on the car,” Demaison added.
Hyundai also failed to deliver on Super Sunday. Toyota once again claimed the biggest points haul from the final day.
We kept pushing on Sunday, but it was very tough against the four Toyotas,” Demaison was forced to concede.
One piece of good fortune for Hyundai might be that the WRC will now head into a lengthy stretch of gravel rallies. The Canary Islands event was the last tarmac rally for some time, with seven gravel rounds to follow. The championship won’t return to asphalt until the Central European Rally in the autumn.
“On tough weekends like this, you learn a lot of very interesting things, which we believe will not only unlock performance for us on tarmac, but on gravel as well. We will now take everything we have learned from these setbacks to come back stronger at the next events,” Demaison promised.
