Did Solberg Just Blow the WRC Title Race Open? | WRC Chile Review
16 stages around Talcahuano in the Biobío region produced a rally win for Oliver Solberg, a 10th manufacturers' title for Toyota, and a puncture for championship leader Elfyn Evans that turned a two horse title race into three.
Rally Chile Biobío ran from the 10th to the 13th of September 2026, the twelfth round of the World Rally Championship and the second stop on the series' South American double header. On this week's Motorsport Files, Drew and Chris pick through all of it, along with the driver market noise building around Hyundai's uncertain 2027 plans. Here's the full story from Chile, with the results and standings to back it up.
Solberg's mature win
Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson led WRC Rally Chile for all but one stage, and the manner of the win was the story as much as the result itself. It was only Solberg's second victory of the season, following his win at Rallye Monte-Carlo in January, and it arrived after a stretch where his season had threatened to unravel through a string of offs in Croatia, the Canary Islands, Japan and Greece. Chile looked different from the start. Solberg set the pace on Friday morning despite damp, treacherous conditions, held a 2.3 second lead by the first service, and stretched that to 19.1 seconds by Saturday night after winning the longest stage of the rally on pure speed.
Sunday could easily have gone the other way. Evans won the opening stage of the final day and cut Solberg's lead to 13.2 seconds, setting up a tense finish. Solberg answered immediately, winning the next test despite picking up right rear tyre damage along the way, and by the time the rally reached its final stages the win was his to manage rather than chase. He crossed the line 16.6 seconds clear of Sébastien Ogier, with Adrien Fourmaux a further 16.7 seconds back in third. On the show, Drew and Chris both point to the balance in the drive as what set it apart. As Chris puts it, Solberg found "that perfect combination of rapid but sensible," a driver who has spent 2026 showing he can do outright pace and now, finally, the discipline to go with it.
Evans' puncture and a title race blown open
For two and a half days it looked like a routine, if slightly frustrating, weekend for championship leader Elfyn Evans. He ran second for almost the entire rally, took the fight to Solberg on Sunday morning, and looked on course to stretch his advantage over nearest rival Sami Pajari heading into the final two rounds. Then, on the penultimate stage, Evans stopped to change a wheel. The delay cost him more than two minutes, dropped him from second to fifth overall, and turned a comfortable points weekend into the moment that reopened the entire championship.
Evans still leads the drivers' standings, but the gap that should have grown instead shrank. He's now just 17 points clear of Pajari, who quietly picked up a strong fourth place finish despite admitting he lacked his usual pace over the weekend, and 21 points clear of Solberg, who has now scored more points than any of his title rivals since the summer. With a maximum of 70 points still on the table across Sardegna and the season finale, this is now a genuine three way fight between Toyota team-mates, and Drew and Chris spend a good chunk of the episode working through how it might play out.
Rally Chile Biobío 2026, Top 10 classification
Pos | Driver / Co-driver | Team | Car | Gap |
1 | Oliver Solberg / Elliott Edmondson | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | 2:57:08.2 |
2 | Sébastien Ogier / Vincent Landais | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +16.6s |
3 | Adrien Fourmaux / Alexandre Coria | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +33.3s |
4 | Sami Pajari / Marko Salminen | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2 | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +1:33.9 |
5 | Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT | Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 | +2:22.3 |
6 | Esapekka Lappi / Enni Mälkönen | Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT | Hyundai i20 N Rally1 | +5:07.0 |
7 | Josh McErlean / Eoin Treacy | M-Sport Ford WRT | Ford Puma Rally1 | +7:31.5 |
8 | Yohan Rossel / Arnaud Dunand | Lancia Corse HF | Lancia Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale | +9:31.0 |
9 | Robert Virves / Jakko Viilo | Toksport WRT | Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 | +10:24.0 |
10 | Gus Greensmith / Jonas Andersson | Toyota Racing | Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 | +10:58.2 |
Rossel's 8th place was enough to secure his and Lancia's first all gravel WRC2 win of the season, while Robert Virves followed up in ninth to wrap up the WRC2 Challenger title, with the outright WRC2 crown now realistically his as well heading into the final two rounds.
Where the championship stands
Toyota's 10th manufacturers' title was confirmed in Chile, a 6th consecutive crown that draws the team level with Lancia at the top of the WRC's all time list. It arrived with two rounds still to run, and it was built on a season where Toyota's four full season drivers have taken turns leading the standings while the team lets them race each other rather than imposing team orders. Drew and Chris spend a good part of the episode debating whether that makes the title worth less given how comprehensively Toyota has outbuilt everyone else this year, or whether the credit belongs entirely with a team that, as Chris argues, "haven't taken their eye off the ball" despite having no real opposition to force their hand.
WRC Drivers' Championship, after round 12 of 14
Pos | Driver | Points |
1 | Elfyn Evans | 230 |
2 | Sami Pajari | 213 |
3 | Oliver Solberg | 209 |
4 | Sébastien Ogier | 171 |
5 | Adrien Fourmaux | 167 |
6 | Takamoto Katsuta | 163 |
WRC Manufacturers' Championship, after round 12 of 14
Pos | Team | Points |
1 | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT (2026 champions) | 614 |
2 | Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team | 410 |
3 | Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2 | 227 |
4 | M-Sport Ford World Rally Team | 152 |
With four Toyota drivers occupying three of the top five spots in the drivers' table, the season now boils down to something unusual: a title fight where the biggest threat to each contender is their own team-mate.
Katsuta's crisis of confidence
Not every Toyota story from Chile was a happy one. Takamoto Katsuta went off the road on the opening stage of the rally, restarted under Super Rally rules, and was eventually classified 36th, a result that does little to settle nerves after three retirements from his last four events. Drew and Chris are sympathetic. Katsuta drove his way to two wins this season on consistency rather than outright pace, and both hosts think the recent run of small mistakes, rather than any single big error, is what's doing the damage to his confidence. Whether that's enough to put his seat at risk for 2027 is a running theme of the episode, alongside the growing queue of Toyota junior talent, from Jasper Vaja to Seth Quintero, waiting for a chance.
Neuville's huge crash and a rough weekend for Hyundai
Thierry Neuville's rally ended in spectacular fashion on Saturday morning, rolling his Hyundai i20 N several times before it came to rest. Neuville and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe were unhurt, and the safety cell held up well enough that the damage looked far worse than it actually was, but the Belgian failed to restart on Sunday and was left out of the classification entirely. It capped a difficult year for Neuville, who already has his 2024 title in the bag and, as Chris notes on the show, hasn't looked fully switched on in a car that was never going to win him another one.
Esapekka Lappi's weekend wasn't much better, finishing sixth but well off the pace of his team-mates, in what could turn out to be his final WRC start. With Hyundai's future as a Rally1 manufacturer still unresolved heading into 2027, and with EP openly admitting he struggled with the feeling of the car all weekend, Drew and Chris both think his run at the top level may be over.
Ford's ongoing struggles
It was a quiet weekend for M-Sport too. Jon Armstrong crashed out on stage eight, restarted under Super Rally rules, and was eventually classified 33rd, another off the road for a driver whose promising start to 2026 has since unravelled. Josh McErlean brought his Puma home seventh, another points finish to add to recent rounds in Finland and Paraguay, which at least gives him a stronger case than his team-mate heading into contract talks for next year. Neither result does much to answer the bigger question hanging over M-Sport, which is whether the team can stretch its Motorsport Ireland Academy line up to a third or even fourth car once the cheaper Rally2 machinery becomes the more attractive option for backers like Martins Sesks.
Listen to the full episode
Chile was a rally that looked settled by Saturday night and then wasn't, and Drew and Chris cover every angle of it on this week's Motorsport Files, from Solberg's title revival to what a shrinking Hyundai might mean for the whole grid in 2027. Before the rally chat, they also dig into the uncertainty around Hyundai's future, the WRC27 regulations and how close they might actually sit to the current Rally2 cars, and the driver market questions building around Fourmaux, Neuville and a handful of names who deserve a seat they don't currently have.
You can listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, and find the rest of our episode guides at themotorsportfiles.com. Follow the show on social media at the handle tmfpod23 for updates throughout the rest of the season.
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