WRC 2026: Evans world champion as Solberg crashes near the line

Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin (Toyota) are 2026 world rally champions. The title was decided on Sunday 4 October at Rally Italia Sardegna, in the final kilometre of the Power Stage: Oliver Solberg, who led the rally and had the title within reach, went off the road two corners from the finish.

A one-point duel before the Power Stage

Before the last stage, Evans and Solberg were effectively a point apart in the virtual standings. Solberg led the rally and the Super Sunday classification, while Evans, in fifth, had stopped to change a wheel on the penultimate stage. Whichever of the two was faster on the Power Stage would be world champion.

Evans felt his own run was not clean enough: he had tried too hard. Sami Pajari, starting behind him, was 2.2 seconds faster, which showed that running later was no disadvantage on the rutted, sandy road.

Solberg a few hundred metres from the title

Solberg went all in. He set the fastest time at the first split and, with 1.2 kilometres to go, was 1.9 seconds ahead of Evans. Then, on the Argentiera coast, his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 oversteered in a left-hander. As he corrected, the car swung the other way and ended up in the dunes, two corners from the finish.

Solberg rejoined the road and finished. He won the rally by 57.6 seconds from Sébastien Ogier, but lost 9 seconds to Evans on the Power Stage, which decided the championship. Pajari, second fastest on the stage, won the Super Sunday and ends the season third, one point behind Solberg.

The rest of the Sardinia results

• Ogier finished second, 39.8 seconds ahead of Pajari, and took his 121st WRC podium.
• Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) was fourth after two punctures in two days.
• Evans finished fifth, ahead of Takamoto Katsuta (sixth); Jon Armstrong (Ford) took a career-best seventh.
• Thierry Neuville (Hyundai), who lost a wheel against a tree on Saturday, won the Power Stage, the last one run with the i20 N Rally1.
• In WRC2, Roope Korhonen won by 0.7 seconds from Robert Virves, already the WRC2 champion.

The end of an era

The finale also marks the end of the current Rally1 era. Toyota's plans are clear, while Hyundai has not yet set out its own. Neuville thinks the brand should be present next year, without knowing how or when.