Rallying-Evans Leads Three-Way Battle as New Champion Set to Be Crowned in Sardinia
A 35-point maximum and three Toyota drivers left the championship undecided as Evans, Solberg and Pajari chase a first WRC title.
- On Sunday, October 4, 2026, Welsh driver Elfyn Evans secured his first World Rally Championship title at Rally Italia Sardegna after teammate Oliver Solberg crashed two corners from the finish.
- Ending a 25-year wait for Britain, Evans became the first champion since Richard Burns in 2001, finally breaking through after five runner-up finishes in the previous six seasons.
- Solberg held a 1.9-second lead with less than a kilometer remaining but ran wide, losing nine seconds and crucial bonus points. Evans finished with 243 points, five ahead of Solberg's 238.
- Evans said, "It hasn't sunk in," describing the win as surreal, while Solberg lamented, "Two corners, two corners." Toyota sporting director Kaj Lindstrom called the ending "quite something" to witness.
- The season finale marked the end of the Rally1 era, with new technical regulations taking effect in 2027. This transition signals a major shift in the competitive landscape for teams and drivers.
141 Articles
141 Articles
World Rally Championship features biggest announcing jinx in history
There are announcing jinxes, and then there is what happened to Oliver Solberg in the final race of the 2026 World Rally Championship in Italy this weekend. Solberg had already clinched the win at Rally Italia Sardegna, the final race of the 2026 World Rally Championship calendar. However, the overall championship came down to the…
Fernando Alonso knows what it is like to lose a World Cup in the last moments. He had it in his hands in 2010 and also in 2012 when the coin crossed instead of face and that is why he wanted to have a gesture with Oliver Solberg. The Nordic driver crashed in the last stage of the Rally ... Continue reading "Fernando Alonso and his applauded gesture with Oliver Solberg after losing the World Rally Championship in the last stage"
Swedish-Norwegian rally driver Oliver Solberg was on his way to winning the world championship title, but then two corners before the finish line he made a mistake, went off the road and, despite winning the race in Sardinia, was left empty-handed.
All the defeats are painful, but there are some that are unimaginable. A few hundred meters from the end, the destination snatched Carlos Sainz in 1998 the title of World Rally Champion; this Sunday, twenty-eight years later, the story again showed his most capricious face in Sardinia with Oliver Solberg.The outcome on the Italian island did not admit more dramatism. Sardinia, the final stage of the season replacing the Rally of Saudi Arabia by …
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