Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson have claimed the WRC2 title by winning Rally Chile – their fifth victory of the campaign.
The Swede’s route to the championship was simplified when both Yohan Rossel and Gus Greensmith retired on Friday with separate engine-related problems, but he was already doing enough anyway with a win enough to secure Solberg the championship on his final points-scoring opportunity.
He eventually beat Nikolay Gryazin by 40.4 seconds.
“What should I say? Unbelievable,” Solberg said.
“I don’t know what to feel, it’s kind of overwhelming. It’s just a very big relief. Last year we had a bit of bad luck, we should have won it definitely. This year finally has been just an incredible year with the team and Toyota taking me onboard with a fantastic car. I’m very, very happy – thank you to everybody.”
Solberg has come close to winning the WRC2 title in both 2023 and 2024, but has looked like a champion in-waiting ever since stepping into a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.
Although he crashed out of Rally Finland, the only other points-scoring rally he didn’t win was Safari Rally Kenya – which he was leading before getting stuck in a deep section of fech fech that was likely to swallow the leading Rally2 car on the road (which Solberg was).
Solberg also took his maiden World Rally Championship victory in a one-off chance in a Rally1 car with Toyota.
He is expected to complete the remaining three rounds of the 2025 season in his Rally2 car.
