Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson won the Rally Italia Sardegna, held on Sunday, October 4, but the drivers’ world title went to Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin. Fifth place in the final race of the season was enough for the Welshman; the event concluded in Sardinia after the round in Saudi Arabia was cancelled.
The title race was decided on the repeat of the Sassari-Argentiera, the seventeenth special stage and final Power Stage, which awarded additional points. Solberg, who needed to finish ahead of Evans to win the World Championship, reached the final section of the stage with a small intermediate lead, but lost control of his Yaris at the penultimate downhill chicane.
The slide sent him off the road; the driver managed to rejoin the route and cross the finish line. The incident cost him the margin he needed to overtake Evans in the standings, while the race victory went to the Swedish pair, who had already won in Monte Carlo and Chile during the season.
Evans and Martin finished fifth, 4’48”1 behind the winners. Their result came at the end of a challenging rally: on Friday, they had started first, tackling the gravel surface before the cars’ passage carved increasingly deep ruts. A puncture on Sunday’s penultimate stage had also cast doubt on their title bid.
The British pair also claimed the championship thanks to their wins in Sweden and Japan, as well as the points they collected with their other finishes throughout the year. Rally Italia Sardegna had become the final round of the 2026 WRC calendar after the Saudi event was dropped: the Sardinian round, scheduled for October 1–4, comprised 17 special stages. The season therefore ended with the decisive battle for the World Championship.
The race podium was entirely Toyota. Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais finished second, 57”6 back, slowed by a puncture; Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen came third, 1’37”4 behind. Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria, fourth in a Hyundai at 2’38”6, lost ground after two punctures.
In WRC2, victory went to Roope Korhonen and Anssi Viinikka, who finished just 0”7 ahead of Mārtiņš Sesks? No, the second-place pair was Virves and Viilo, at the wheel of a Škoda. Gus Greensmith and Jonas Andersson completed the podium, hampered by a gearbox failure. Also among the top five were the Italians Roberto Daprà and Luca Guglielmetti, fourth, 2’13” behind the winners.