Wales has a new World Champion today after Elfyn Evans won the World Rally Championship 2026 on its last round in Sardinia yesterday.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team had already taken this year’s manufacturer’s title in Chile a month ago and Evans and co-driver Scott Martin have been leading the crews’ standing since April as they steadily chipped away towards the crown.
Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin took impressive victories in Sweden and Japan and led the championship since round five in the Canary Islands in April, continuing to score highly while opening the road on mostly loose gravel rallies, which is not ideal.
Evans has been five-times runner up in the premier rallying championship and is the first British driver in 25 years to win the series following in the tyre tracks of Colin McRae and Richard Burns.
He has spent seven seasons spent fighting for victories and championship honours with TGR-WRT, and this year’s win for Evans saw a nail-biting final power stage on the Mediterranean island and came as a surprise when his closest rival Oliver Solberg running behind him on the stage went off the track two bends from the end.
There were jubilant scenes at the finish with 37-year-old Evans and Martin, their families, and in Dolgellau. He had led by 21 pts into the event and TGR-WRT team-mate Oliver Solberg was the only driver capable of snatching victory but the Swedish driver saw that disappear in the dust when he clipped a bank and went off the track within sight of the flag and the title.
He got going again but lost valuable time on his way to the flag.
Solberg, whose father Petter won the WRC title in 2003, won the event by almost a minute ahead of nine-time world champion Sebastien Ogier. A third Toyota driver, Sami Pajari, was next.
Evans times put him fifth yesterday, just behind Adrien Formaux in his Hyundai.
Sardinia marked the end of an era and the farewell WRC event for the highly successful GR Yaris Rally1 car before new technical regulations are introduced for 2027.
