Adrien Fourmaux walked out of one of the most chaotic Fridays of the 2025 season as the shock leader of Rally Saudi Arabia, clinging to a wafer-thin 2.4-second advantage despite suffering a puncture on the final stage — the same brutal fate that struck Mãrtiņš Sesks, the man he dethroned.
A Four-Way Fight Turns Into a Desert Minefield
Fourmaux had been part of a ferocious four-car battle all day with Sesks, Sami Pajari, and Ott Tänak.
The Frenchman opened Friday as the rally leader, but a broken rear suspension arm steadily chipped away at his advantage. At one point, the top four were separated by just 6.3 seconds.
Then came the late-day twists.
Pajari and Tänak Puncture — Then Fourmaux Goes the Wrong Way
The penultimate stage detonated the rally order completely.
Pajari and Tänak both stopped to change punctures, losing huge time.
Meanwhile, in the dust cloud thrown up by Pajari, Fourmaux misread a junction, took the wrong slot, and bled 24 seconds.
That mistake handed Sesks a commanding 22.1-second lead heading into the final test, Wadi Almatwi 2, and looked set to define the day.
Sesks Punctures… Then Fourmaux Punctures Too
But the desert wasn’t done.
Sesks suffered a rear-left puncture, flipping the rally upside down again.
Fourmaux pounced — only to cross the finishing line with a front-left puncture of his own.
Even so, the M-Sport driver crawled out of the chaos in first place, 2.4 seconds ahead, while reigning champion Thierry Neuville suddenly launched himself to within 5.8 seconds of the lead.
Fourmaux summed up the mayhem:
“It’s been crazy. I don’t know where I got a puncture… there are rocks everywhere. It’s a crazy rally. Every time we lose the lead we get it back after. We hesitated to stop but I said ‘no, there’s only a few km, come on’. What a rally, what a rally.”
Title Fight: Ogier Limping, Rovanperä Capitalizing
The championship battle wasn’t spared the carnage either.
Sébastien Ogier limped to the finish of the final stage on a puncture, losing what became fifth place to Kalle Rovanperä by just 0.2 seconds.
Sami Pajari slotted into seventh, with Ogier’s title rival Elfyn Evans behind him.
As things stand, Ogier is poised to gain four points on Evans, who began the rally three points ahead.
Seven Rally1 Cars Hit by Tire Trouble on Final Stage
The final stage delivered a catastrophic blow across the field, with seven Rally1 drivers — including Neuville, Takamoto Katsuta, Grégoire Munster, and Ott Tänak — suffering punctures or delaminations. Tänak’s misery peaked when he lost over seven minutes.
Tänak could only laugh off the brutality:
“Amazing grand finale for WRC, amazing. Not really for the cars, but OK.”
