Sébastien Ogier claimed the first victory of his World Rally Championship title defense at Rally Islas Canarias after Oliver Solberg crashed out.
Solberg had been just 2.2 seconds behind the nine-time world champion before the final two stages, but got it wrong over a crest and hit the Armco barrier, taking a wheel off his Toyota.
That released the pressure on Ogier who had been carefully managing a lead he’d taken as early as Friday’s opening test.
His eventual winning margin stood at 19.9s over Elfyn Evans who moved back into the lead of the championship, two points ahead of Takamoto Katsuta who finished fourth in Canarias.
Sami Pajari scored third to record his fourth WRC podium finish in succession, while Solberg’s zero-point score leaves him 33 shy of Evans’ series lead and behind Pajari (by four points) in the championship.
“First and foremost I’ve enjoyed myself this weekend,” said Ogier. “We had a great car to drive again so well done to all the team. It’s been an extremely close battle all weekend, especially with my team-mate Oliver [Solberg]. It’s a shame we could not all finish and bring this show to an end, but from our side we did what we had to do and pretty happy to win a new rally on the list.”
Ogier became the fourth different Toyota driver to win an event from the five so far this season, and the team was on for a top-five lockout before Solberg’s exit. Across Islas Canarias’ 18 stages, the GR Yaris Rally1 was never beaten to a stage win.
As he did last year, Adrien Fourmaux came out on top of the self-labelled Hyundai Cup however, scooping fifth place overall.
The i20 N Rally1’s understeer issues persisted and none of the crews could take the fight to the Toyotas, but Fourmaux did defeat team-mate Thierry Neuville by 11.5s – despite a 10s penalty on the powerstage due to a jump-start.
“That’s life,” Fourmaux rued. “It’s a shame about the jump start on the powerstage, but I was too early with the clutch. Actually I think l lost more time, but anyway.”
Returning to WRC Rally1 action for the first time since Acropolis Rally Greece 2024, Dani Sordo had led Hyundai’s charge after Friday but faded to seventh come Sunday, 16.7s adrift of Neuville.
Josh McErlean notched up his best result of the season in eighth place for M-Sport Ford, finishing two minutes clear of team-mate Jon Armstrong who dramatically slid off down an escape road on Friday and then off the road altogether on Saturday before spectators helped him rejoin.
Yohan Rossel showed his WRC2 rivals a clean pair of heels to score his, and Lancia’s, second category victory on the bounce by 25.1s.
Just like in 2025, Alejandro Cachón finished second behind him – the Spaniard engaged in a huge fight with outgoing championship leader Léo Rossel before the Citroën driver ran into transmission trouble and fell to fifth behind Eric Camilli and Roberto Daprà.
