Elfyn Evans ends Britain's 25-year wait for world rally title after Solberg's last-stage crash
Elfyn Evans is the 2026 world rally champion. The Toyota driver secured the title in Sardinia on 4 October after team-mate Oliver Solberg crashed two corners from the finish of the final stage while on course to snatch it.
It finished that close. Evans ended the season on 243 points, Solberg on 238 and Sami Pajari on 237, per final standings reported by The Guardian.
Solberg needed a big result from the Power Stage, the last timed test that pays bonus points to the fastest five crews. He ran wide, careered down a bank and scrambled back to the road. He still won the rally. He missed the bonus points. That miss decided the championship.
Evans finished fifth on the gravel rally. It was enough. He had started the finale 21 points clear of Solberg and 17 clear of Pajari, and fifth place kept him in front when Solberg's late push failed.
With co-driver Scott Martin, Evans becomes the first British world rally champion since Richard Burns in 2001. He is only the third Briton to win it, after Colin McRae in 1995 and Burns.
For Evans, it ends a long wait. He had finished runner-up five times in the previous six years before this title.
The weekend had swung hard against him before it swung back. Solberg started the final day 33.6 seconds clear of the field and in control of the rally. Toyota had already sealed the manufacturers' championship, so the only fight left was between its own drivers — and Pajari — for the drivers' crown.
Sardinia was not meant to be the decider. The Saudi Arabia finale was cancelled due to conflict in the region, which made the Italian island round the last of the season.
The decisive test was the 7.10km Sassari-Argentiera stage, according to WRC.com. Solberg, the son of Norway's 2003 world champion Petter Solberg, attacked it with the title on the line. Two bends from the end, it slipped away.
What makes this stand out is the margin for error. Rallying is timed to the tenth of a second over hundreds of kilometres. Here a season of 13 rounds came down to one wide corner on one short stage.
