ERC’s ultra-competitive 2026 encore

Next weekend is going to feel a lot like the 2026 World Rally Championship getting an encore.

We’ve seen the main show, with Elfyn Evans beating Oliver Solberg to the title in the most dramatic finale imaginable. But for rally fans looking for a final fix before entering the off-season slumber, there’s one last event that’s likely to deliver a close battle to the very end with familiar faces aplenty.

Rally Six Cities of Northern Portugal is the European Rally Championship finale. Teemu Suninen already has the title wrapped up. But once you see who’s in the mix, it’s clear that this won’t be a quiet Sunday drive. And with the WRC not going to Portugal next year, it’s a chance for some of the world’s best drivers to make up for not battling on that hallowed ground in 2027.

Kris Meeke won the previous round of the ERC in Ceredigion. He’s going to be even harder to beat at the season finale, having won the past two editions of the Fafe-based event. Last year his winning margin was over half a minute and the year before, over a minute.

But compared to those previous wins, Meeke has a much stronger quality of field to fend off, even if he’s back in the same Toyota Portugal-run GR Yaris Rally2 as last year.

Team MRF has gone all-out to prevent Meeke from making it three in a row in Portugal. Roope Korhonen – runner-up in WRC2 this year – will drive a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, a combination that won last year’s Rally Hungary on the same MRF tires.

If one win wasn’t enough, MRF has another four ERC victories to its name in its Portugal tent: Mārtiņš Sesks. He’s back in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 and, alongside Korhonen, that duo has one clear target: secure the teams’ championship for Team MRF.

MRF’s lineup has one final curiosity: Patrick Enok. The 20-year-old may not have the same level of hype as his compatriot Jaspar Vaher – especially after the Toyota prodigy’s fight for the lead on his first ever ERC outing in Sweden earlier this year – but Enok has shown plenty of potential in Finland and his WRC debut earlier this year. The field strength in Portugal will be rallying’s best chance yet to see how he stacks up.

“I know I will have a lot to learn as I adapt to competing at this level, particularly with 31 Rally2 cars on the entry list,” said Enok. “I will give it my best. Having team-mates such as Roope and Mārtiņš will push me to raise my game and give me a valuable opportunity to learn from their experience.”

Lancia has decided to up the stakes by bringing four cars, rather than its usual solo entry for Andrea Mabellini. A duel for the runners’ up spot in the championship behind Suninen is ongoing between Mabellini and last year’s champion Miko Marczyk (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) – but now the Italian will have three(!) team-mates to support him in that fight.

Lancia’s inbound trio are all WRC regulars: Nikolay Gryazin is drafted in from the factory HF Corse division, while early-season WRC2 championship leader Léo Rossel has been added to the line-up from the 2C Junior Team. Pablo Sarrazin will also be driving an Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale in Fafe.

For other drivers Portugal is going to be about attempting redemption.

Jan Solans went into 2026 as a potential dark horse for the WRC2 title. Instead, he has zero podiums this year (aside from a third place on Rallye La Llana, a Spanish Tarmac round) and crashed out of the battle for victory on Portugal’s WRC event in May, flying off the road on the Vieira do Minho test.

His return to the ERC is about getting the right ending to a season that’s gone wrong.

“For me it’s very important,” said Solans. “I was in Sardinia, also one event that I really like, and I was hoping to get a good result. But on Friday we had to retire because we damaged the suspension and then on Saturday we went off the road. So I don’t want to end the season like this, mainly because of my sponsors and everyone around that is making a big effort for my career. So I am very focused to give a good result for them in the last rally of the season.”

Arthur Pelamourgues’ year began brightly with a Monte podium on his WRC2 debut in January. But his season came to a sudden, shuddering halt with a high-speed accident on Rally Finland, demolishing a tree with his Hyundai i20 N Rally2.

In September he took on two regional rallies in France but the ERC finale is his first step back into the big leagues since his massive accident.

And still there is more to watch for. Sarah Rumeau and Julie Amblard became French Gravel champions last weekend, the first all-female crew to do so, and will now test themselves against the stacked Portuguese field aboard their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.

There’s another fast Finn coming through the ranks in Ville Vatanen; the 20-year-old clinched the ERC3 title with victory at Ceredigion and is now stepping up to a Rally2 car on gravel for the first time – how will he fare against such strong opposition? The same question applies to four-time ARA National champion Brandon Semenuk, who’s making another ERC start after his Sweden debut led to a ninth-place finish.

Curiously, Roope Hirvonen – the 21-year-old son of 15-time WRC event winner Mikko – has chosen Portugal’s ERC round to branch out into international rallying.

Until now the Hirvonens had taken a deliberately low-key approach to Roope’s rallying, looking at it not so much as a career but as a fun hobby. His focus had purely been on Finnish rallies, with Mikko even taking the co-driving duties regularly.

But the younger Hirvonen now has a full-time co-driver in Aleksi Marttila and is branching out, having contested his first rally away from his home country at last week’s Rally Città di Bassano in Italy. Rally Six Cities of Northern Portugal will be his first gravel event outside of Finland.

In total, there’s at least half a dozen strong contenders for victory at the ERC finale. Reputations may be established, restored or cemented – for better or worse. Considering the main show has finished playing, it’s a pretty entertaining premise for an encore to international rallying’s 2026 season.