And then there were 13.
Rally Saudi Arabia being dropped from this year’s WRC schedule – and the inability to find a replacement – suddenly means the 2026 World Rally Championship will conclude in just over two weeks.
That has plenty of ramifications, not least for those fighting to become world champion.
Evans now a huge championship favorite
Elfyn Evans already held the advantage in that he headed to Sardinia with the most points – 17 more than Sami Pajari and 21 more than Oliver Solberg – but with the worst of the road conditions on potentially two events, would it be enough?
If Evans scores 19 points in Sardinia, he will be the new World Rally champion
The scale of the Welshman’s challenge has now been halved, with only one event standing between him and a first world championship crown.
It remains entirely possible for either Pajari or Solberg to still win the title with 35 points on offer, and a better road position than Evans, but Pajari has not outscored Evans by more than 13 points at any stage this season, while Solberg took 20 from Evans in Chile but is 21 behind.
If Evans scores 19 points in Sardinia, he will guarantee himself the title regardless of his rivals’ results.
WRC will crown a new champion
What we do know for certain, however, is that there will be a brand-new World Rally champion in 2026.
This appeared a strong likelihood anyway, with only two world champions in the field and Thierry Neuville already eliminated from mathematical contention anyway.
Ogier's reign as world champion is now officially over
Sébastien Ogier’s reign as world champion is now officially over however, with the Frenchman currently 63 points adrift of Toyota team-mate Evans and just 35 now on the table.
Virves is WRC2 champion
Robert Virves looked destined to become WRC2 champion for 2026, with four wins a second place on the board.
But Teemu Suninen’s entry into Sardinia meant it was still mathematically possible for the Estonian to be denied the title.
That’s no longer the case, with Suninen 41 points adrift and now only able to recover 25 from his deficit to Virves.
That means for the first time since the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 was homologated, it has not won the WRC’s Rally2 championship.
One last chance for Fourmaux
Adrien Fourmaux has been knocking on the door of a maiden WRC win for over a year, but particularly in the last few events.
He’s made no secret of his desire to claim that first win driving a Rally1 specification car. To achieve that, Fourmaux now has just one last chance: in Sardinia.
He’ll start fifth on the road, in a race with Ogier (who’s four points ahead) for fourth place in the championship.
Toyota can’t break another WRC record
Toyota was on track for a record 13th victory in a season, but that's no longer possible
Having drawn level with Lancia on both 10 manufacturers’ titles and winning six consecutively, at last week’s Rally Chile, Toyota was closing on another WRC record: the most event wins per season.
It currently shares that accolade with Volkswagen on 12 and is currently on 11 in 2026. Had there been two rounds left it could’ve won 13 events, but now it can only match its own tally of 12.
Italy’s third finale in seven seasons
While Italy was never supposed to host the WRC finale in any season during the 2020s so far, this will now be the third time it has done so.
In both 2020 and 2021 the Monza Rally was drafted in as the season finale with the entire globe feeling the effects of coronavirus, while this year Sardinia becomes the de facto crescendo with no Saudi Arabia to follow.
Monza hosted the WRC finale for two consecutive seasons at the top of the decade
A three-month off-season
Last year’s WRC season ended at the very end of November, leaving December as the only full month without any competition.
This year’s Rally Saudi Arabia had already shifted two weeks forward in the calendar, but its removal from the 2026 calendar means there’ll be no WRC event for almost a third of a year.
Rally Italy Sardinia concludes on October 4 and the Monte Carlo Rally commences on January 21, meaning there’ll be 109 days between the end of 2026 and the start of 2027 when the new technical regulations make their debut.
