WRC title takes another twist as Thierry Neuville retires from Rally Italia Sardegna

WRC title takes another twist as Thierry Neuville retires from Rally Italia Sardegna

3rd October 2026 0 By Kamron Kent

Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville has retired from the World Rally Championships’ Rally Italia Sardegna, allowing Toyota’s Elfyn Evans to extend his championship lead.

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

Saturday has been a rollercoaster of a rally day as the title fight has taken more twist and turns than a tight technical section, as Neuville joins the list of retirements having suffered ‘serious damage’ on SS11.

The Belgian was running from the lead, having snatched it from his teammate, Adrien Fourmaux, on Friday evening’s final stage. However, the 2024 world champions will not see the end of Saturday’s action having stopped out on course.

It is unclear what had happened, with the drivers confirming the car has significant damage and pulled up down an access road, unable to carry on 1.1km into the afternoon loop. Fortunately, the crew reported they were okay.

However, it does now move everyone up by one place, meaning Toyota’s outgoing world champion, Sebastien Ogier will now sit behind the rally leader – and championship hopeful, Oliver Solberg, with Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux locking out the podium positions.

Oliver Solberg takes over WRC Rally Italia Sardegna lead inching closer to title

Additionally, Toyota’s final championship-hopeful, Sami Pajari, and championship leader, Elfyn Evans’ now move up into fourth and fifth, respectively. As such, the two championship challengers will benefit from the extra points.

Solberg will not benefit from Neuville’s retirement, having snatched the rally lead from the Belgian at the end of the morning loop. Having taken the lead, the Swede had previously cut down the Welshman’s advantage to four points at the end of SS10, this morning.

It now means that Evans extends his championship fight to six points over the rally-leading Solberg, whilst Pajari remains 15 points behind the points-leader. However, there is still the rest of the rally, and 10 points still up for grabs on Super Sunday, tomorrow.

Championship standings

  1. Elfyn Evans, Toyota – 240
  2. Oliver Solberg, Toyota – 234 (-6)
  3. Sami Pajari, Toyota – 225 (-15)

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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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