Oliver Solberg lays down gauntlet at Rally Italia Sardegna

Oliver Solberg lays down gauntlet at Rally Italia Sardegna

1st October 2026 0 By Kamron Kent

Toyota’s Oliver Solberg has provided a statement at the World Rally Championship’s Rally Italia Sardegna, taking the overnight lead and going fastest in shakedown.

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Solberg has laid down the gauntlet on Thursday at the WRCs season finale having gone fastest overall at the Italian shakedown event, and following it up with the opening stage win to take the overnight rally lead.

The Toyota driver is one of three Toyota-backed contenders still in contention for the WRC drivers title; Solberg, Sami Pajari and Elfyn Evans, with the latter holding the championship lead. A maximum of 21 points separates the top three drivers, with Evans only needing to score 19 to take the world championship.

Thursday kicked off the action with a short sprint on a gravel-asphalt mixed surface that made up the opening stage, SS1 Ittiri Arena Show, as the crews faced off in pairs. However, it was Solberg who reigned victorious.

The Swede pipped Toyota’s Sebastien Ogier to the fastest stage time, going 0.8 seconds faster than the nine-time world champion. However, it was an all-Toyota top four, with the three championship contenders amongst those positions.

Rally Italia Sardegna: Full WRC stage times and guide

Solberg leads Ogier, Evans and Pajari in first, second, third and fourth respectively, with only 1.5 seconds separating the top four drivers. Takamoto Katsuta completed the Toyota line up in sixth, separated from the group by Hyundai’s leading driver in Italy, Thierry Neuville, who took fifth.

Hyundai’s Daniel Sordo saw a painful start to the Italian rally after being given a 20-second time penalty, from two separate 10-second time infringements; being a minute late and a false start during SS1.

It followed on from a shaky start in Shakedown, having ran wide and hit a tree on the left side of his Hyundai during the opening pre-event test. Fortunately, the Hyundai mechanics were able to repair the damage to the i20N before the event officially started.

Day 1 – Top 10:

  1. Oliver Solberg, Toyota – 2m 1.4s
  2. Sebastien Ogier, Toyota +0.8s
  3. Elfyn Evans, Toyota +1.1s
  4. Sami Pajari, Toyota +1.5s
  5. Thierry Neuville, Hyundai +2.3s
  6. Takamoto Katsuta, Toyota +2.7s
  7. Adrien Fourmaux, Hyundai +3s
  8. Jon Armstrong, M-Sport Ford +3.7s
  9. Joshua McErlean, M-Sport Ford +4.2s
  10. Teemu Suninen, WRC2 +4.6s

M-Sport Ford’s Martins Sesks took up 12th place overall, amongst the WRC2 competitors. While, further down, Sordo occupies 49th overall after his 20-second time penalty.

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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.

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.

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