Oliver Solberg heads Rally Chile after day one morning loop

Oliver Solberg heads Rally Chile after day one morning loop

11th September 2026 0 By Kamron Kent

Toyota occupy the top two positions after the morning loop of Rally Chile with Oliver Solberg edging out ahead of Elfyn Evans after three stages.

Feature image credit: Jaanus Ree // Red Bull Content Pool

The World Rally Championship officially got back underway in South America on Friday, with Rally Chile, and it has been a tight fight at the front of the timing boards. Both the championship leader, Elfyn Evans, and once-title hopeful, Oliver Solberg trading places over the opening three stages.

Solberg took the initial stage win to take a 1.4 second lead out front, ahead of Evans, but the Welshman bit back for Stage 2 (Nuevo Rere 1) and moved ahead by 0.4 seconds ahead of the Swede.

But, on the final test of the morning loop, Solberg returned to the top of the timing boards pipping Evans to take a 2.3 second lead over the championship leader.

Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux rounds out the top three, 17.7 seconds adrift of the Swedish rally leader. But, the Frenchman heads the South Korean manufacturer ahead of the 2024 world champion, Thierry Neuville, with only 2.7 seconds in between the two Hyundai’s.

Conditions early on were tricky thanks to overnight rain which had left the conditions damp and wet, with some puddles of standing water on the road, helping the likes of Evans stay inside the early fight for the lead – as the first driver out onto the stages.

Takamoto Katsuta’s South American woes continue in Rally Chile

However, not everyone made it through cleanly as Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta’s found, not escaping his South American woes.

On the opening stage of the weekend, the Japanese driver had ran wide at a left-hand corner, 6km into the first test. Katsuta clipped the dirt edge which pulled his Rally1 Yaris into the road-lined fence and beached his car, facing downhill – retiring from the day.

Both he and his stand-in co-driver, James Fulton, who stands in for the injured Aaron Johnstone, were okay following the incident.

Rally1 leaderboard;

  1. Oliver Solberg, Toyota – 27 minutes 10.5 seconds
  2. Elfyn Evans, Toyota +2.3s
  3. Adrien Fourmaux, Hyundai +17.7s
  4. Thierry Neuville, Hyundai +20.4s
  5. Sebastien Ogier, Toyota +20.9s
  6. Sami Pajari, Toyota +23s
  7. Joshua McErlean, M-Sport Ford +1m 14.3s
  8. Jon Armstrong, M-Sport Ford +1m 19.1s
  9. Esapekka Lappi, Hyundai +1m 27.8s

Read more WRC here:

Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to keep up with the latest news from ApexMotorsports.co.uk!

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.

CategoryNews Rallying WRC

About the author

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.

Leave a Reply