Oliver Solberg finished Saturday's Rally Monte-Carlo WRC 2026 with a 59.3-second lead over Evans. On Sunday, he could break Ogier's record as the youngest winner.

Oliver Solberg heads into the final Sunday of the Rallye Monte-Carlo with a 59.3-second lead over Elfyn Evans and the chance to become the youngest winner of the event. The 71.9 kilometers that remain stand between him and the record set by Sébastien Ogier in 2009 when he won at 25 years old, an age Solberg only recently surpassed by turning 24 last September.

Saturday's conditions summed up everything unpredictable about Monte-Carlo: deep snow in the Gap mountains in the morning, mud when temperatures rose in the afternoon, and torrential rain over Monaco in the evening. The 29.93 kilometers of SS10 La Bréole-Bellaffaire, the rally's longest stage, cost Solberg 17 seconds of his initial 1:08.4 lead, although he partially recovered ground in the next stage by outpacing Evans by 11.4 seconds.

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The critical moment came on the second pass through La Bréole, when Solberg lost traction in a snowy section and went through a fence onto snow-covered terrain. Without stopping the GR Yaris Rally1, he managed to get back onto the asphalt and still set the fastest time of the stage, a recovery he himself admitted he didn't know how he achieved. "I tried to follow the ruts and at the exit there was full snow. I don't know how I got out of there," he explained.

"I tried to follow the ruts and at the exit there was full snow. I don't know how I got out of there."

Saturday closed with SS13 on the Monaco Grand Prix circuit, the first WRC competitive stage in the Principality since 2008. In rain that turned corners into an ice-skating rink, Solberg chose a conservative pace. His lead of almost a minute allows him to manage risk heading into Sunday, which includes two passes over the Col de Turini with the second one serving as the Power Stage.

Toyota controls the top three podium positions

Toyota Gazoo Racing has its three GR Yaris Rally1 cars in the top three positions, with Evans holding a 26-second lead over Ogier. Ogier won the morning stage but opted to reduce his aggression once the snow began to melt and conditions became more unpredictable. "Wet snow in the afternoon that from my perspective was almost impossible to manage," he summarized, satisfied with keeping his podium position intact.

The difficult conditions claimed significant victims: Sami Pajari retired in SS12 after hitting a tree, Hayden Paddon went off in the same stage and dropped to thirteenth position, and Nikolay Gryazin also had to retire from the rally.

Among the chasers, Hyundai has Adrien Fourmaux in fourth, 6:02.9 behind the leader, followed by Thierry Neuville in fifth. Jon Armstrong occupies sixth place in his debut with M-Sport Ford after overcoming a puncture, and Takamoto Katsuta recovered to ninth after resolving the power steering issues that plagued him on Friday, setting the third-fastest time in the morning stage and second-fastest in the Monaco special.

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Toyota's bet in its first Rally1 season

Toyota announced the signing of Solberg as a replacement for Kalle Rovanperä for 2026 last November, after he won five of seven rounds in the 2025 WRC2. The deal was finalized months earlier, in July, when Toyota offered him the wheel of the GR Yaris Rally1 at Rally Estonia and Solberg responded with a 25.2-second victory over Ott Tänak, his first outright victory in the WRC almost three years after his last Rally1 appearance.

Solberg had competed with Hyundai in 2022, achieving a fourth place in Ypres as his best result before returning to lower categories to develop. Toyota now brings him into a lineup that balances the experience of Evans and Ogier with younger drivers like Pajari and Katsuta, trusting he can compete against opponents with decades more experience in the top category.

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Sunday will put that bet to the test over four stages in the mountains above Monaco, with the legendary Col de Turini as the star of the final two stages. Solberg must manage his 59.3-second lead over Evans to complete the rally and surpass Ogier's record.

WRC Overall After SS13- Rallye Monte Carlo 2026 - WRC

POS	DRIVER/CO-DRIVER	TEAM	DIFF 1st	DIFF PREV
1	Oliver SOLBERG / Elliott EDMONDSON	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT GR Yaris Rally1	-	-
2	Elfyn EVANS / Scott MARTIN	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT GR Yaris Rally1	+ 1:07.0	+ 1:07.0
3	Sébastien OGIER / Vincent LANDAIS	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT GR Yaris Rally1	+ 1:41.8	+ 34.8
4	Thierry NEUVILLE / Martijn WYDAEGHE	HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WORLD RALLY TEAM i20 N Rally1	+ 2:14.0	+ 32.2
5	Adrien FOURMAUX / Alexandre CORIA	HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WORLD RALLY TEAM i20 N Rally1	+ 3:32.8	+ 1:18.8
6	Jon ARMSTRONG / Shane BYRNE	M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM Puma Rally1	+ 3:33.0	+ 00.2
7	Takamoto KATSUTA / Aaron JOHNSTON	TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT GR Yaris Rally1	+ 5:27.9	+ 1:54.9
8	Hayden PADDON / John KENNARD	HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WORLD RALLY TEAM i20 N Rally1	+ 5:50.4	+ 22.5
13	Grégoire MUNSTER / Louis LOUKA	M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM Puma Rally1	+ 8:24.3	+ 30.4