Sesks leads Rally Saudi Arabia as title contenders fall behind
27th November 2025M-Sport Ford’s Mãrtiņš Sesks leads the WRC season finale after the morning loop in Saudi Arabia, whilst the title contenders falter down the field.
Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree // Red Bull Content Pool
After a short Super Special Stage on Wednesday evening, in Jeddah, won by Hyundai’s Ott Tanak, the WRC officially returned to gravel for the final time this season on Thursday morning.
It is the first time the Latvian has been behind the wheel of the Puma competitively in the WRC since Finland, back in August. Despite this, the Latvian has taken two stage wins, Thursday’s Al Faisaliyah and Moon Stages, SS2 and SS3.
As it currently stands, Sesks holds onto a narrow lead after four stages completed, 1.3 seconds ahead of Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, who occupies second after setting the pace on SS4, Khulais 1.
The Frenchman himself is narrowly ahead of third-placed Toyota’s Sami Pajari as the two drivers are separated by 0.4s.
Switching focus onto the title fight amongst the Toyota drivers, Sebastien Ogier, Elfyn Evans and Kalle Rovanpera, Ogier is in the provisional seat for his ninth world title, in seventh.
Both Ogier and Evans have endured a slow start to Thursday after they were tasked with opening up the stages, as per the running championship order; Evans first, Ogier second.
Evans made a small mistake on the first pass of Khulais, turning early into a left-hand bend and costing him time to Ogier. As it currently stands, Ogier sits seventh, 22.7 seconds ahead of Evans in eighth.
Rovanpera suffered a puncture on the fourth stage, and his outside shot for the title has slimmed even further. As the Finnish double world champion competes in his final WRC event, he currently occupies 10th overall, in between Ford’s Nasser Al-Attiya and Oliver Solberg, who occupy ninth and 11th, respectively.
The leaderboard after SS4:
- Mãrtiņš Sesks – 39m 40.6s
- Adrien Forumaux +1.3s
- Sami Pajari +1.7s
- Ott Tänak +14.8s
- Thierry Neuville +17.8s
- Takamoto Katsuta +19.5s
- Sebastien Ogier +27.6s
- Elfyn Evans +50.3s
- Nasser Al-Attiya +51.4s
- Kalle Rovanpera +1m 8s
Gregoire Munster (12th) +1m 20.5s
Joshua McErlean (20th) +3m 2.6s
Read more WRC here:
- Rally Saudi Arabia: the schedule ahead of the WRC finale
- Rally Japan: 3 Winners and Losers
- Toyota confirms 2026 driver line-up as Oliver Solberg gets promotion
- Ott Tanak to take a break after 2025 WRC season
- Sebastien Ogier wins Rally Japan to tighten gap on Elfyn Evans
- Rovanpera has incident as McErlean crashes on third stage of Rally Japan
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
