Four events down, four different winners.
Or so we thought.
I’ve chosen to keep my originally-planned intro to this piece to demonstrate just how unexpected that finish to Croatia Rally 2026 was.
Last weekend’s event delivered one of the craziest narratives we’ve ever seen in the WRC, but what a story it was.
Here’s what we learned from Croatia’s fifth chapter in the world championship.
Neuville hits a new low
The sad irony is that this was a far better weekend for Thierry Neuville.
His feeling was back. The confidence behind the wheel, his trust of the car, was returning. He was hounding Sami Pajari before the punctures for him and Katsuta that gave Neuville “a gift” he accepted “with open arms”.
But then he dropped it.
Blowing a one-minute lead on the final stage is disastrous for any driver. For a world champion, it's unfathomable
Neuville never arrived in the final media zone and we haven’t spoken to him, but he said this in Hyundai’s press release by way of an explanation:
“First of all, I would like to express my apologies to the whole team – everybody who works with me throughout the whole year. It’s a huge disappointment for Martijn and myself, we didn’t expect that but unfortunately the rally can strike even at the very last stage. We were driving according to plan, and our target was just to get through the stage, but unfortunately, we were surprised on that corner.
“I probably turned in a bit too early, and my first reaction was to open, and then the incident happened. It’s going to be a tough period for us but we have no choice but to come back stronger and keep fighting. We won’t give up and our time will come again.”
Neuville’s better than most at picking himself back up. But this was a painful blunder at a time when his team really, really needed a relief.
Pajari can fight anywhere
Shoulda, woulda, coulda – but for the majority of Croatia Rally, Sami Pajari looked like he’d be the winner.
Elfyn Evans’ peculiar off from a 15.8s lead on stage three presented Pajari an opportunity, but he’d fully earned it.
Sami Pajari didn't put a foot wrong all rally – validating his feelings of being 'robbed' of victory
A strong second before his team-mate went off – on a surface you wouldn’t have said was his strongest – Pajari managed proceedings perfectly through Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.
No panic, no drama, he just got on with it. Until he was one of many to exit SS14 with a sad story to tell – a puncture change robbing him of two minutes and a maiden WRC rally win.
A third podium in succession will offer the Finn little by way of consolation – particularly as a gentleman’s agreement between him and Katsuta not to fight each other on Sunday may have cost him the win for the second time! But what should encourage him is the sheer proof he can genuinely fight at the front anywhere.
His previous podiums had been claimed in Japan, Sweden and Safari – all very different rallies. Croatia was yet another marker that Pajari has what it takes to win a round of the WRC. The question is when?
Solberg’s inexperience showed
I had Oliver Solberg down to win this one, not to be the first driver to retire. His accident on the very first stage was clearly tough to take, as we could see from the tears he struggled to fight back at the scene of the incident.
But it was avoidable – and Solberg knew it. In what he called an “expensive mistake”, the Swede regretted fitting hard tires to his Yaris without a lot of prior experience on them before the rally.
That bit him.
The searing speed on Saturday (helped in part by running first on the road) and then a maximum points haul on Sunday means he actually reduced the points gap to team-mate Elfyn Evans from eight to six with a dominant drive across Saturday and Sunday.
Evans’ exit, however, spared Solberg who could easily have been heading to Canarias with a points deficit of over 20. How important could that be when we reach the business end of the season?
Katsuta’s a title contender
Last year, at Toyota’s 2026 lineup launch, Takamoto Katsuta told us he wanted to fight for the title in 2027.
Well, it appears he’s a year ahead of himself, as the now two-time WRC winner now leads the championship courtesy of a shock victory in Croatia.
Perhaps that championship lead owes a great deal to Evans and Solberg’s back-to-back disappointments, but it also highlights the strides Katsuta is making.
If visits to the podium remain the norm for Katsuta and Johnston, it will become hard to discount them as a factor in the title race
With a clear responsibility to get the car home after his team-mates’ troubles, Katsuta drove with a reserve in Croatia – especially on Sunday where he recorded zero bonus points. The victory was a total surprise he awkwardly accepted.
He has seven points in-hand heading to the Canarias and is in better form than any of his peers. Will it last?
Armstrong closing on a big result
You could take the negative view and point out that Jon Armstrong is behind three Rally2 drivers (who’ve each started no more half the rallies he has) in the championship, and that he’s made mistakes in all four events so far as a Rally1 driver.
The second of those points has more validity than the other, but neither outweigh the positives.
The Irish driver is showing genuine promise, comfortably taking the fight to the Hyundais and, in Croatia, setting nine top-three stage times. That’s 45% of the stages – and he missed four of those entirely due to his Friday retirement, so couldn’t set a time. He also fell just 0.1s short of a maiden WRC stage win.
Granted, Croatia was the one event we may have expected something special from Armstrong, as he won the rally last year in a Rally2 Fiesta when it was a round of the European championship.
But for a left-field Rally1 promotion, this one continues to work out handsomely for M-Sport and the Motorsport Ireland Rally Academy.
A big result to match his impressive performances can only be around the corner.
Lancia’s maiden WRC2 win is just the start
There were scenes of elation at the finish of Croatia in the WRC2 class.
After a disappointing Monte Carlo, Yohan Rossel recovered by giving Lancia its first ever victory in WRC2, and first ever overall top-four finish since Alex Fiorio at the 1994 Acropolis.
But he also led home a Stellantis Motorsport 1-2-3 ahead of brother Léo (Citroën C3) and Nikolay Gryazin, generating two very important family photos.
Rossel's raw speed on the Monte was clear, even if he missed out on a big result. The remaining question mark is gravel pace
Rossel, and Lancia’s, speed on gravel is the next point of interest, but so is Rossel’s next step as a driver. He very clearly had to motivate himself to remain a WRC2 driver, watching his old rivals race away in Rally1.
But the Lancia carriage is no bad one to be bolted too with an eye on 2027 and the regulatory reset.
