Oliver Solberg takes overnight lead of Rally Sweden
13th February 2026Toyota’s Oliver Solberg stands as the overnight leader of the World Rally Championship’s Rally Sweden, after the sole stage on Thursday.
Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree // Red Bull Content Pool
Following the shakedown earlier in the day, when the day turned into night, only one stage opened up the weekend in the Nordic event: Umea 1. The sole stage was 10km in length and finished with a run through the Red Barn Arena.
But it was Solberg, continuing his early form from Monte Carlo, who delivered for his home crowd. The Swede took the opening stage win ahead of his fellow teammates as Solberg stopped the clock with a time of five minutes and 53.1 seconds.
It stood as a Toyota 1-2-3-4 after the opening day with Solberg out front, ahead of Elfyn Evans, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari, in second, third and fourth, respectively.
The Welshman, Evans, sat second, 3.8 seconds off the pace of the leading Rally1 Yaris.
Uniformly, Hyundai and M-Sport Ford occupied the timing boards in their groups.
Thierry Neuville headed the South Korean manufacturer ahead of Adrien Fourmaux and Esapekka Lappi, in fifth, sixth and seventh.
Lappi, in his return to Rally1, had a spot of trouble on the Shakedown as the Finnish driver tested the boundaries. He managed to dive his i20N into a snowbank on the first shakedown run, but he was able to get out of trouble and continue on his way.
M-Sport Ford was the next group of drivers, with Joshua McErlean leading the way for the Cumbrian squad, in eighth, ahead of Martins Sesks.
Toyota’s Lorenzo Bertelli completed the Rally1 runners in 10th, 26.1 seconds off the pace.
M-Sport Ford’s Jon Armstrong was the last of the Rally1 contenders, 21st on the overall leaderboard. The Irishman had a troubled opening stage as the Puma driver outbraked himself into a right-hand corner.
Armstrong tried to rotate the car around the corner, but ground the front of the Puma across the apex snowbank before slamming his car into the far-side bank. Fortunately, he was able to continue to the stage end, albeit 45.1 seconds behind the leading time.
Read more WRC here:
- 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
- Elfyn Evans takes Monte Carlo lead after opening WRC stage
Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with the latest news from ApexMotorsports.co.uk!
You can also support us on Patreon or our website!
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.
