The battle for the 2026 World Rally Championship title will be decided on the final Rally Italy Sardinia Power Stage after Elfyn Evans suffered a puncture in the penultimate stage.
The championship leader was forced to stop on stage 16 to change a front-right wheel in what proved to be a late twist as the title battle seemed to swing further towards rally leader Oliver Solberg. It is the second rally in a row that Evans has suffered a puncture in the penultimate stage after suffering a similar fate in Chile.
“We could see it coming a long way back, it was a very fast corner with a lot of stones,” said Evans. I eased the speed right off and went as clean as I could through it… yeah. Can always count on these [tyres]
“We’ll try [on the Power Stage].”
Evans started Sunday with a six-point lead over rally leader Solberg but that was soon whittled down to three. Rally leader Solberg continued his impressive pace to top the Super Sunday standings, which offers a bonus five points, with Evans sitting in fourth that would earn two points.
However, the puncture in stage 16 wiped out any chance of Super Sunday points for Evans, reducing the gap between the title rivals to one point in Evans’ favour heading into the final stage.
With Solberg on course to take a third win of the year and topping Super Sunday by 8.7s, he is set to win the title on countback if he ends the rally level on points.
Oliver Solberg Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: Toyota Racing
It has created quite an incredible final-stage decider where, if Evans beats Solberg he is world champion and vice versa if Solberg is quicker than Evans on the 7.1km Sassari – Argentiera stage later this afternoon.
“Wow so easy,” Solberg said sarcastically when he was told that he only needs to beat Evans in the Power Stage to be world champion.
“We’ll do our very best to the end. On the first pass we had a clear disadvantage starting in the back, hopefully it’s not the same in the Power Stage. Maybe I wish it was a more normal stage, but anyway I will fight. All in.”
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