WRC 2026 Rd.13 Day 1 | 2026 | PRESS RELEASE | WRC

Rally Italia Sardegna: Day 1 TGR-WRT’s title fighters begin final battle

2026.10.01 (Thu)

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team’s drivers have started the final and deciding round of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship season with a spectacular side-by-side stage at Rally Italia Sardegna, where title contender Oliver Solberg claimed the initial lead.

Car 99 (Oliver Solberg, Elliott Edmondson)

Solberg is one of three GR YARIS Rally1 drivers competing to be crowned world champion for the first time this weekend, along with Elfyn Evans and Sami Pajari. Evans has a lead of 17 points over Pajari and 21 over Solberg.

Fresh from a victory in the last rally in Chile, Solberg also set the fastest time during the morning’s pre-event shakedown as teams and drivers made final checks and tweaks before the competitive action got underway.

In the afternoon’s 2.21-kilometre Ittiri Arena super special, Solberg led a 1-2-3-4 for TGR-WRT. He was quickest by 0.8 seconds over Sébastien Ogier, who set a new record as he started his 214th WRC event, surpassing the tally of his Team Principal, Jari-Matti Latvala.

Evans and Pajari raced side-by-side through the stage and were also among the frontrunners on the leaderboard in third and fourth, 1.1s and 1.5s from the lead respectively.

GR Yaris Rally2 driver Teemu Suninen claimed an early lead in the WRC2 category in 10th overall.

Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“It’s exciting to be here in Sardinia, which hosts the final rally of the season for the first time and what I’m sure will be an epic battle between three of our crews; the first time that three are all fighting to become world champion for the first time in the deciding event. This is always a tough rally and it seems unlikely that anything will be settled before the end of the last stage on Sunday. The most important thing for all three contenders in this first stage was to get through it cleanly, but they all set good times as well, so we can see they are up for the fight before the real challenge begins tomorrow.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“It’s good to get this final rally started. Everything’s feeling alright and this first stage went fine for us, but we know that the real challenge will start tomorrow morning. The later date for the rally this year hasn’t changed the demands of this rally: after a long and hot summer it’s still looking very dry and loose, so it could be tough tomorrow running first on the road. We’re not in a position to just cruise around, so the target like normal needs to be to drive well from the start, try to stay in touch and see how things play out.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 1)
“It was a great way to start the weekend with this arena show stage and very nice to see so many fans there; we always feel the passion for motorsport when we’re on Italian soil. Tomorrow the real business will start, and it can be a tough weekend for the cars and the tyres. We’ll do our best to stay out of trouble, try to enjoy it and fight for a last win with this car. I’m proud to have been able to be competitive for so long, and hopefully we can achieve a strong result to match this record start.”

Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
“It’s always nice to start the rally with a stage win, but there’s a long and tough rally ahead. Even though it’s the last rally and we have a gap to close, it’s not as straightforward as just driving flat out. Sardinia is always challenging and the stages are surprisingly dry, so it won’t be easy. We’ve still got to get to the end without trouble to stay in the fight, so the plan is to have a clean weekend, try our very best and hopefully still be in with a chance on Sunday. If everything goes well and with maybe a bit of luck on my side, everything is possible.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It’s nice to see so many fans already watching this first stage of the rally; it seems like a lot of people have arrived on the island to watch this last rally of the year! It’s always nice to be here and we’ll try to make a good rally. It seems like it’s going to be very challenging like always with the conditions. Everybody will want to attack and enjoy this last rally, but I think we need to be clever and find the right balance.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“Stage one was quite an exciting first taste for this weekend, with lots of fans and a bit of sliding here and there, but from tomorrow onwards I think everyone can expect quite a wild ride. The championship is not fully in our hands and we will most likely need a bit of luck, but at the same time we have to go for it, because if we are slow, it won’t just come our way. The risk of an issue can be higher if you try to push, but hopefully we find a good pace from tomorrow morning and can put up a good challenge.”

End of day one (Thursday):
1 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 2m01.4s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +0.8s
3 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1.1s
4 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +1.5s
5 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2.3s
6 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2.7s
7 Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +3.0s
8 Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne (Ford Puma Rally1) +3.7s
9 Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +4.2s
10 Teemu Suninen/Janni Hussi (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +4.6s
(Results as of 17:00 on Thursday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

What's next?
The first full day of the rally consists of two loops of three stages using familiar roads in new configurations in the north-east of the island, separated by mid-day service in Alghero and totalling 119.66 competitive kilometres.