Elfyn Evans Is World Rally Champion After Five Years as Runner-Up

Elfyn Evans is world rally champion for the first time, after his title rival Oliver Solberg crashed in the closing stages of Rally Italia Sardegna. Evans had been runner-up five times before Sunday.

The nearly-man clears the bar

Five second places is a particular kind of career. It is long enough to establish that the speed is there and long enough for the question to attach itself to the driver rather than the car. Evans answered it in the least satisfying way available — a rival's crash rather than a win of his own — which is also the way a great many championships have been settled.

The result puts Evans alongside Colin McRae and Richard Burns as a British world rally champion, the first since Burns.

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Solberg's car and the circumstances of the crash were still being reported when the rally finished. No final points margin has been confirmed.

Sources: BBC Sport, 4 October 2026, BBC Sport, 5 October 2026