News Summary
- Elfyn Evans became 2026 WRC champion after finishing runner-up five times between 2020 and 2025
- Oliver Solberg was ahead of Evans’ time and on course to take the championship before going off two corners from the end
- Evans becomes the first Welsh WRC champion and Britain’s first since Richard Burns in 2001
Elfyn Evans had spent six years discovering almost every possible way to lose a World Rally Championship. In Sardinia, he finally discovered how quickly a title could come back.
The Welshman became 2026 WRC champion by five points over Oliver Solberg after one of the most dramatic finales in championship history. Going into the final Power Stage, Solberg was leading the rally and needed only to beat Evans’ stage time to complete an extraordinary comeback and take the title.
With 1.2km remaining, Solberg was 1.9s ahead of Evans. Two corners from the finish, he lost control, went off into the dunes and surrendered the Power Stage points he needed.
Solberg recovered to win Rally Italia Sardegna, but Evans was world champion.
For a driver who had finished second in the championship five times in the previous six seasons, the circumstances carried particular significance.
Five runner-up finishes in six seasons
Evans’ sequence began in 2020, his first season with Toyota.
He arrived at the Monza finale 14 points ahead of Sébastien Ogier and in position to become world champion for the first time. Snow transformed the rally, however, and Evans slid off the road on stage 11. Ogier took the title by eight points.
Evans finished second to the Frenchman again in 2021 before a difficult first season with Rally1 machinery dropped him to fourth in 2022. Then the sequence resumed.
Kalle Rovanperä beat Evans to the 2023 championship, Thierry Neuville did the same in 2024 and Ogier denied him again in 2025. That last defeat was particularly difficult: Evans entered the Saudi Arabia finale three points ahead but eventually lost the championship by four.
Five runner-up finishes — 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025 — made Evans the most frequent second-place finisher in WRC championship history without a title.
Evans thought he had lost it again
Even the final afternoon in Sardinia appeared to be following the same pattern.
Evans arrived at the season finale 21 points ahead of Solberg and 17 clear of Sami Pajari, but opening the road on Friday put him at a disadvantage while Solberg moved into the rally lead. Then came another setback on Sunday.
A puncture on the penultimate stage forced Evans to stop and change a wheel, costing around two minutes and eliminating his opportunity to score Super Sunday points. The championship effectively came down to one calculation: whichever of Evans and Solberg was faster on the Power Stage would become world champion.
Evans completed his run but immediately believed he had pushed too hard. Sami Pajari then went 2.2s faster, suggesting conditions were improving for the drivers running later.
“I was quite sure it wasn’t going to happen with my run in the Power Stage,” Evans admitted afterwards.
Solberg reinforced that fear as soon as he started. The Swede was fastest at the opening split and remained 1.9s ahead of Evans with only 1.2km remaining. At that moment, the championship was heading towards Solberg.
The decisive moment came on a left-hander near the end of the Sassari-Argentiera Power Stage.
Solberg oversteered, corrected the Toyota in the opposite direction and went off the road into the dunes. He managed to return to the stage and reach the finish, but his advantage had become an 8.9s deficit to Evans. Only two corners had remained.
Solberg still won the rally by 57.6s over Sébastien Ogier, but the Power Stage result left Evans with enough points to take the championship 243-238. Pajari finished only another point behind on 237.
Evans initially remained cautious even after Solberg went off.
His father, former British rally champion Gwyndaf Evans, had already begun celebrating, but Elfyn wanted to wait until the result was certain.
“A lot of people were more convinced than me, especially early on,” he said.
Six years after Monza, the roles were reversed
The circumstances inevitably recall 2020.
That year, Evans was the championship leader who went off the road during the finale, allowing Ogier to take the title. In 2026, Evans had already completed his final competitive kilometres when the rival chasing him made the decisive mistake.
The difference is that Evans does not consider Sardinia alone responsible for finally making him champion.
“It wasn’t won here. It was the season’s work,” he said after the rally.
That season was built largely on consistency. Evans took victories in Sweden and Japan and remained at the top of the championship from the Canary Islands onwards, continuing to score during a second half in which Solberg and Pajari increasingly reduced his advantage.
After 13 rallies, only six points separated the top three.
Evans ends Britain’s 25-year wait
Evans is the first Welsh driver to become World Rally champion and only the third British driver to win the title.
Colin McRae became Britain’s first champion in 1995, followed by Richard Burns in 2001. Twenty-five years passed before Evans joined them.
Co-driver Scott Martin also secured his first world championship after partnering Evans since 2017. The pair moved together from M-Sport to Toyota in 2020, beginning the six-year period in which Evans became a regular championship contender.
This time, second place was no longer the final result.
After five runner-up finishes, Evans ended the season with 243 points, Solberg 238 and Pajari 237.
And after losing his first major title opportunity by leaving the road in a season finale, Evans finally became world champion when his closest rival went off two corners from the end.
GRANDE PRÊMIO provides full coverage of the World Rally Championship and international motorsport.
FAQ
How many times did Elfyn Evans finish runner-up in the WRC?
Evans finished second in the World Rally Championship five times before becoming champion: 2020, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
How did Elfyn Evans win the 2026 WRC championship?
The title was decided on the final Power Stage in Sardinia. Oliver Solberg was on course to beat Evans’ time and become champion but went off the road two corners from the finish. Evans won the championship by five points.
Who was the last British WRC champion before Elfyn Evans?
Richard Burns was the previous British World Rally champion, winning the title in 2001. Evans ended a 25-year wait and became the first Welsh driver to win the championship.
