Evans takes Rally Sweden lead as Solberg sinks
13th February 2026Toyota’s Elfyn Evans has taken over the World Rally Championship lead as his teammate, Oliver Solberg, sinks to fifth place.
Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree // Red Bull Content Pool
Solberg had taken the rally lead on Thursday night, after a 10km run through the Swedish forest. However, the Welshman, and winner last time out in Sweden, Evans, has taken over at the top of the overall leaderboards.
The young Swede looked to continue his form from Monte Carlo, taking the first stage win of the event, going into Friday with a 3.8-second advantage over Evans.
Evans quickly established the lead as Solberg made a small mistake in Friday’s opening test, finishing behind the Welshman by 9.4 seconds, to give the #33 Toyota a 5.6-second lead.
This advantage was later extended as Solberg ran off the road on the following stage, ploughing through the snow and miraculously getting his Rally1 Yaris back onto the course. Accompanied by a puncture, Solberg limped to the finish on SS3 – Andersvattnet 1, losing 37.5 seconds to his Welsh teammate and rally leader.
Following the conclusion of the morning loop, with Bäck 1, won by Solberg, Evans had established a gap to his closest rival, Takamoto Katsuta. The two Toyota teammates were separated by 14.5 seconds, whilst Evans had a comfortable lead on the home hero, 36.3 seconds, who occupies fifth.
However, the SS4 stage victory only puts Solberg 0.1 seconds ahead of Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, in sixth, ahead of Thierry Neuville and the M-Sport pairing of Jon Armstrong and Joshua McErlean.
Heading into the afternoon loop, it means Toyota now occupy the top three spaces with Evans, Katsuta and Sami Pajari, before Hyundai’s Esapekkia Lappi breaks up the Toyota line.
Bygdsiljum 2 will ignite the second pass of the Friday stages before they head to the 5.7km Umeå Sprint stage tonight to close out day two.
Read more WRC here:
- Oliver Solberg takes overnight lead of Rally Sweden
- Weather report: latest ahead of WRC Rally Sweden
- Entry List: WRC 2026 Rally Sweden
- Solberg controls Monte Carlo lead as Evans keeps Ogier at bay
- Solberg extends and strengthens WRC Rallye Monte Carlo lead
- Solberg takes overnight lead after tricky opening day of WRC Rallye Monte Carlo
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
