Elfyn Evans regained the lead of the 2026 WRC championship by winning Rally Sweden by 14.3 seconds ahead of his teammate Takamoto Katsuta, taking advantage of the puncture that took Oliver Solberg out of the fight for victory on Friday. The Welshman now has 60 points compared to the Swede's 47 before Safari Rally Kenya in March, extending Toyota's advantage to 51 points over Hyundai in the manufacturers' championship.
Evans arrived on Sunday with a 13.3-second margin over Katsuta, who had briefly taken the lead on Friday with a 2.8-second advantage. The Welshman controlled the three final stages on Sunday without major scares to secure his third victory at Rally Sweden, also adding 18 points from the Power Stage when he finished second just 0.078 seconds behind Thierry Neuville on the final special stage. Evans had previously won this rally in 2020 and 2025, confirming his effectiveness on the Scandinavian compacted snow stages.
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The battle between Evans and Solberg sets the championship narrative at this start of the season. Three weeks ago in Monte Carlo the Swede had won on his debut as a full-time Toyota driver, beating the Welshman by 51.8 seconds, but now the story changed completely when an error on Friday in Sweden sent Solberg deep into a snow bank. The puncture on the front left wheel took him out of the fight for victory and left him in final fourth place, allowing Evans to reclaim the top spot in the championship with a 13-point lead as the season barely begins.
Toyota equals Citroën's historic achievement with second consecutive sweep
Toyota Gazoo Racing completed a 1-2-3-4 at Rally Sweden, making the Japanese manufacturer the first since Citroën in 2010 to achieve two consecutive podium sweeps in the WRC. The four GR Yaris Rally1 cars finished in the top 4 in the first two rounds of 2026, building a 51-point advantage over Hyundai in the manufacturers' championship as the season just kicks off with twelve rallies remaining.
Sami Pajari finished third, 46.0 seconds behind the winner, for his second podium in the category, holding off pressure from Solberg in the final stages on Saturday as the Swede tried to regain positions. The Finn is establishing himself as the third-best performing Toyota driver at this start of the season, accumulating 17 points in the championship, placing him ahead of several more experienced Rally1 drivers.
Katsuta moved up to third in the championship with 30 points thanks to his second place in Sweden, pushing Adrien Fourmaux down to fourth with 28 units. The Japanese driver had briefly taken the rally lead on Friday when he was 2.8 seconds ahead of Evans, but lost confidence and grip in his GR Yaris on Saturday as the Welshman regained control. He won the penultimate special stage on Sunday and pressured Evans until the end, although he finished 14.3 seconds behind to secure his fifth second-place finish in WRC without achieving his first victory in the category, a mounting frustration for a driver who has proven to have winning pace but hasn't been able to convert it into results.
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Hyundai faces second consecutive crisis with performance issues
Hyundai's three i20 N Rally1 cars finished more than 1:50 behind the winner at Rally Sweden, marking the second consecutive rally where the Korean team shows a significant gap to Toyota. Fourmaux, Lappi, and Neuville reported a lack of grip and confidence on the snow throughout the weekend, testing multiple experimental setup changes without finding solutions to close the gap to the GR Yaris cars.
Fourmaux finished fifth, 1:50.3 behind the winner, as the best-placed Hyundai driver, followed by Esapekka Lappi in sixth place during his return to the WRC since Chile 2024. Lappi showed competitive pace but was unable to get close to Toyota's speed on the compacted snow stages, adding 9 points in his first appearance of 2026, placing him eighth in the drivers' championship.
Neuville had the most difficult weekend of the three Hyundai drivers. The 2024 champion lost over a minute on Friday when his windscreen completely fogged up during SS3, forcing him to clean the glass while trying to keep the car on the road. On Saturday he received a one-minute penalty when officials detected he did not have his helmet correctly fastened during SS15, nullifying his fastest time on that stage. He finished seventh, 3:45.9 behind the winner, describing the weekend as "frustrating" and the period as the "most difficult of his career." The Belgian has accumulated 21 points in the championship, 39 units behind Evans, although the season has just begun with twelve rallies remaining.
Hyundai has accumulated 66 points in the manufacturers' championship compared to Toyota's 117, a 51-point difference in the first two rounds of 2026 that exposes the magnitude of the i20 N Rally1's problems at this start of the season, although the Korean team has time to close the gap considering there are twelve rallies left on the calendar.
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M-Sport regains ground with Armstrong and McErlean in the top 10
M-Sport Ford placed two Puma Rally1 cars in the top 10 as Jon Armstrong finished eighth and Josh McErlean ninth, both recovering from multiple punctures on Friday caused by errors in tire pressure. Armstrong is tied on points with Roberto Daprà with 4 points each, and McErlean adds 2 points to his championship tally. Mārtiņš Sesks showed competitive pace on Saturday when he won SS10, demonstrating that the Puma Rally1 has speed in ideal conditions, although three punctures on Friday forced him to retire and restart.
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Roope Korhonen won the WRC2 category and completed the overall top 10 with an 11.2-second advantage in his class to add his first championship point in his season debut, closing out the classification of the top ten places.
Safari Rally Kenya will be the third round of the 2026 WRC from March 12 to 15, offering completely different conditions on African dirt roads that will test whether Hyundai's problems are specific to snow and ice or part of a wider performance gap requiring urgent solutions from the Korean team.
WRC Overall - Rally Sweden 2026
Elfyn EVANS
Takamoto KATSUTA
Aaron JOHNSTON
Sami PAJARI
Oliver SOLBERG
Adrien FOURMAUX
Thierry NEUVILLE
Lorenzo BERTELLI
Mārtinš SESKSUpcoming Races
Drivers Standings 2026
| POS | PILOTO | PTS | ↕ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elfyn Evans | 60 | arrow_up1 |
| 2 | Oliver Solberg | 47 | arrow_down1 |
| 3 | Takamoto Katsuta | 30 | arrow_up4 |
| 4 | Adrien Fourmaux | 28 | |
| 5 | Thierry Neuville | 21 | |
| 6 | Sébastien Ogier | 18 | arrow_down3 |
| 7 | Sami Pajari | 17 | arrow_up7 |
| 8 | Esapekka Lappi | 9 |
Manufacturers Standings 2026
| POS | CONSTRUCTOR | PTS | ↕ |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT | 117 | |
| 2 | HYUNDAI SHELL MOBIS WORLD RALLY TEAM | 66 | |
| 3 | TOYOTA GAZOO RACING WRT2 | 18 | arrow_up1 |
| 4 | M-SPORT FORD WORLD RALLY TEAM | 14 | arrow_down1 |
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