Having won on his Toyota debut at last year’s Rally Estonia, few expected Solberg to win again as soon as the Monte – his first event as a full-time Rally1 driver.
But the WRC2 champion took the lead on SS2 with a commanding 31s stage win, and never looked back.
While he went off the road and into a field on Saturday and suffered a small spin on Sunday, Solberg remained calm in the treacherous winter conditions to record a controlled 51.8s victory over Toyota team-mate Elfyn Evans.
He leads the championship by four points over Evans who won the powerstage and finished second on Super Sunday, beaten incredibly by Yohan Rossel’s Rally2 Lancia.
“I don’t understand it at the moment I think, it’s another emotional day,” said an emotional Solberg, before he embraced his father Petter and fiancé Chloe.
“It was the most difficult rally I’ve done in my life and it’s my first rally in the car on Tarmac, first rally back at the full level. And here we are winning the whole thing. It’s so demanding, it’s been so stressful, just a big thank you to Toyota and the belief that I could deliver for you.”
Solberg has won 100% of the rallies he's started in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Reigning world champion Sébastien Ogier completed the podium in third – his weakest Monte result since 2012 when he crashed a Škoda Fabia S2000.
Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux and Thierry Neuville finished fourth and fifth overall, but several minutes down on the leading Toyotas.
Fourmaux lost 30s lost in the fog on Thursday, suffered an electrical problem on Friday afternoon and spun on Saturday to finish 5m59.3s down. Neuville got stuck for three minutes on Friday’s final stage, and hit something on Sunday that necessitated a tire change, to end up 10m29.8s back.
WRC2 winner Léo Rossel finished a strong sixth overall as he beat Škoda pair Eric Roberto Daprà and Eric Camilli to the top spot. It was Citroën driver Rossel’s first WRC2 victory, as his brother Yohan Rossel broke a wheel on the very first stage and Lancia team-mate Nikolay Gryazin went off into a field on Saturday.
Takamoto Katsuta finished seventh, held back by an impact which broke his power-steering on Friday afternoon, while Hayden Paddon completed his first WRC event for a manufacturer since 2018 in 10th place – losing four minutes on Saturday with an off into a field.
Four Rally1 cars failed to make it to the end of the event. The first to fall was Toyota’s Sami Pajari, who retired on Thursday night when he hit a bridge and broke his rear-left suspension.
He was then out for good on Saturday, running wide, getting stuck in a snowbank and hitting a tree.
Grégoire Munster then exited the event on Sunday morning as his Ford Puma Rally1 stopped on the liaison towards the day’s first stage with a mechanical issue.
Josh McErlean then retired on the penultimate stage, hitting an Armco barrier which wrecked his Ford’s front-left corner. The Irish driver retired from both Thursday and Friday’s legs as well as he got stuck in the snow.
Jon Armstrong had been excelling on his Rally1, and Monte Carlo, debut, peaking with a third fastest time on SS2 that put him third overall. He later settled into sixth but also retired on the penultimate stage, ending M-Sport’s impressive manufacturer points-scoring run which began at 2002’s Monte Carlo Rally.
