“Mae Elfyn Evans yn Bencampwr y Byd!”
The elated shouting in the Radio+ commentary room perfectly captured the sheer joy felt by all of Wales on 4 October as the motorsport world witnessed the most thrilling World Rally Championship finale in recent history. It all came down to the last two corners on the very final stage of the weekend when the young Swedish contender Oliver Solberg, who looked set to win, lost control of his Toyota GR Yaris when he oversteered on the approach to the finish. The wait was finally over for Elfyn Evans; after 13 seasons in the WRC, the Welshman and co-driver Scott Martin were crowned champions.
Anyone who has been following the championship from the start of the year will know that it has been an exciting one. January saw Solberg become the youngest ever winner of Rally Monte-Carlo, while Takamoto Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston took their maiden rally win in Kenya. It was a drama-packed year, with tyre troubles and crashes along the way, but things really amped up in the latter half of the season when Finnish driver Sami Pajari pulled a hat trick, winning the rallies in Estonia, Finland, and Paraguay back-to-back and closing in on Evans’s championship lead.
It all concluded during the final round of the year at Rally Italia Sardegna, where the only remaining title contenders were Evans, Pajari, and Solberg. Thursday’s arena show gave Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson the early lead, while Friday had the drivers face visibility issues due to sunlight and dust clouds, with some suffering punctures and having to make quick tyre changes during the morning loop.
However it was the Hyundais that made their mark as Thierry Neuville and Adrien Formaux dominated the early stages. After throwing the car through stage 7, it was no wonder that Solberg finished the day in third, crucially creeping ahead of Pajari in the points. Saturday was tense, and a delaminated tyre early on for Formaux bumped Solberg up into second, while it put Evans at a disadvantage. By stage 10, Solberg was unsurprisingly leading the rally once again, ahead of Neuville by 6 seconds after a tremendous drive. The Swede maintained this momentum all throughout the day, but a retirement for Neuville and a second puncture for Formaux gave Evans what he needed to jump up to fifth going into Sunday.
The pressure was on during the final day, and all three title contenders gave it everything they had. On stage 16, the stakes were raised yet again as Evans suffered a puncture, and going into the power stage, the gap between him and Solberg boiled down to a singular point: whoever finished with the faster time on the final stage would become the World Champion.
While the drivers outside of the title fight were enjoying driving in these regulations one final time, the pressure remained on for Evans, who set a time of 4:59.8 for Solberg to beat. Everything looked set for the young driver to claim the title in his first full year in the WRC, but only a few hundred metres from the finish line, full send became Solberg’s enemy as he overdrove two corners from the end and landed his car in the bushes. It was an enormous shock to all, but the deciding moment for Evans, who became the first British driver to win the WRC in 25 years, and the first Welsh driver to hold the title.
While it was heartbreak for Solberg, his efforts this year cannot be diminished, and we will no doubt see him in more championship battles in the future, with a new era of rally on the horizon. Evans has closed out 2026 triumphantly, with the entire nation of Wales and the rest of the UK behind him all season. No longer runner-up as he has been five times over the last six years, Evans appeared still in disbelief as he accepted his victory. On the podium,, he held the Welsh flag with pride, and while it would have been preferable for “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” to play instead of “God Save The King”, he and Scott Martin accepted their laurels graciously as they were crowned World Rally Champions 2026.
This is a monumental achievement for Welsh motorsport; the country runs multiple events throughout the year for the British Rally Championship, as well as Rali Ceredigion since 2024, and Wales Rally GB as part of the WRC from 1973 to 2019. With such a strong tradition in rallying, especially in rural Wales, this victory is all the more sweet.
New teams are expected to join the roster in 2027 as the regulations change, and the year ahead will bring with it a whole new challenge for Evans and Martin as they defend their title, but for now Wales and the UK can celebrate. Llongyfarchiadau, Elfyn a Scott!
“Elfyn EVANS – Scott MARTIN” by Nico86* is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
