Evans and Scott Martin clinch first WRC titles in Toyota-GAZOO Racing’s drama-filled Rally Italia Sardegna finale

Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin secured their first FIA World Rally Championship titles in a dramatic season finale at Rally Italia Sardegna, finishing a four-way fight that turned into a direct intra-team showdown inside TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team. Entering the final round with a 17-point lead over Sami Pajari and 21 points over Oliver Solberg, Evans spent much of Friday opening the road and ended the day sixth overall. Pajari was one position ahead in fifth, while Solberg took advantage of his starting position to end Friday third and move within reach of the rally lead. The tightness carried into Sunday, where the championship was essentially put on a narrow track: 10 bonus points were available across Super Sunday and the Power Stage, the events that can swing final standings beyond stage results alone.

By the start of the final day, Solberg held a comfortable lead on the rally leaderboard, while the virtual championship gap between Solberg and Evans had narrowed to six points. The decisive moments then unfolded on the planned Super Sunday sequence, starting with a stage win by Solberg on Osilo–Tergu. The run that followed changed the complexion. The Sassari–Argentiera beach test, known for its sandy downhill finish, punished later runners as the surface deteriorated. Evans initially looked to be in contention for Sunday points, but a puncture-related stop in the second pass of Osilo–Tergu cost him close to two minutes. That setback left Evans holding fifth overall and effectively removed him from the Sunday points battle, forcing him to attack the final Power Stage with only a narrow margin still separating him from the overall championship lead.

With the final rally stage turning into a near head-to-head time trial for the crown, the Power Stage outcome determined the championship. The Toyota team described it as a straight shootout between Evans and Solberg, on the understanding that the quicker time would be world champion. Solberg was faster across splits during a committed run, according to the team, but he ran off the road near the end of the stage. He returned to finish and still won the rally, but he finished 8.9 seconds behind Evans on the Power Stage time, a difference that was enough for Evans and Martin to take the title.

The team said the result capped a long pursuit. Evans and Martin have been together with TGR-WRT for seven seasons, including championship runner-up finishes in five of the previous six years. Toyota noted that Evans’ 2026 campaign combined consistency with targeted pace, including two wins in Sweden and Japan and calculated Sundays even when he had to open the road in consecutive gravel rallies. Both the driver and co-driver milestones were emphasized by Toyota. Evans became the first Welsh driver to win the WRC drivers’ title, while Martin became the first English co-driver to win the co-drivers’ title, joining a shorter list of United Kingdom winners that includes Colin McRae and Richard Burns on the drivers’ side, and co-drivers David Richards, Derek Ringer, Robert Reid and Phil Mills.

Toyota also framed the championship as a team accomplishment. It said this was the seventh time in eight years that a TGR-WRT crew won the world championship, and the fifth time in six years that the team swept all three titles, with the manufacturers’ crown already secured at the previous round in Chile. In Sardinia, Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson finished five points behind in the drivers’ standings after Solberg’s first full season at the top level, with Toyota highlighting back-to-back victories in Chile and Sardinia after overcoming a mid-season deficit.

Key figures on the team echoed the tension and the years of near misses. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing chairman Akio Toyoda offered three messages to Evans and Martin: congratulations, thank you, and sorry, acknowledging that the team’s support had shifted toward Evans in the championship fight while also attributing prior second-place finishes to a steady accumulation of points. Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala said the season’s target was to give all drivers an even chance to win, calling the final weekend’s fight “incredible” and crediting Evans and Martin for finally getting titles “after so many years.”

There is still some context left unquantified by the release itself. While Toyota provided the key swing points, including the Power Stage timing gap and the pre-final-day championship margins, it did not publish a full breakdown of how Super Sunday bonus points were allocated across the specific classifications. As a result, the mechanical details of the remaining points math are not fully visible from the announcement, though the final standings and points totals were included.

Looking ahead, the release indicates continuity and transition in car development. Toyota said the Rally Italia Sardegna marks the end of the GR YARIS Rally1’s current homologation journey, spanning five seasons since 2022, and noted that new technical regulations begin for 2027. For teams and sponsors tied to the WRC platform, the question now becomes how Toyota will carry forward the competitiveness of the current package into the rule change year, while also managing the internal challenge that nearly delivered titles to multiple drivers and co-drivers in the same season.