Elfyn Evans heads into Rally Italia Sardegna with 17-point WRC lead from 1-4 October
Elfyn Evans leads the World Rally Championship by 17 points as he heads to the season-ending Rally Italia Sardegna from 1-4 October in pursuit of his first drivers' title.
The 37-year-old from Dolgellau has won 13 WRC rallies, beginning with Wales Rally GB in 2017, and has finished runner-up in the championship five times in the past six years; with the planned Saudi Arabia finale removed from this year's calendar, the Sardinia round now closes the season and offers Evans a chance to become only the third Briton to win the WRC, joining Colin McRae and Richard Burns. Evans previously won the WRC Junior Championship in 2012 and his move to Toyota Gazoo Racing in 2020 propelled his top-level career.
The nearest miss that year came after the Covid-19-shortened 2020 season of seven rounds. After placing third at Monte Carlo in his first outing in the Toyota Yaris and then winning Rally Sweden and Turkey to carry a 14-point lead into the finale, Evans crashed off the road with 10 of the 16 Monza stages complete and finished 29th, having placed no lower than fourth in the other events; Sébastien Ogier clinched a seventh world title by eight points, leaving Evans “gutted.” “When I braked on that, it was just like glass and there was no chance of us slowing down at all. It completely caught me by surprise,” Evans said, later calling it “a massive disappointment” that made him “more determined.”
In 2021 Evans began the year by leading after Rallye Monte Carlo but Ogier won in Monaco and three further early rounds to build a commanding advantage; by mid-August, with four rounds remaining and a 38-point deficit, Evans admitted: “The gap is quite a big one now. We've got a real uphill struggle if we want to try and win the championship.” Two late results — victory in Finland and second at Rally Catalunya — pushed the title to a deciding Monza round where team-mate Ogier and co-driver Julien Ingrassia prevailed to take the rally and the championship, prompting Evans to reflect: “It's been a pretty OK year. Of course, I can't help but feel a little disappointed right now, you always look to the places you could've done better.”
Evans struggled in 2022 as the new hybrid cars caused problems, going off the road in the opening round and retiring from three further rallies to finish fourth, more than 120 points behind first-time champion Kalle Rovanperä; ahead of 2023 he said: “2022 fell below our expectations.” The following season Evans won round four in Croatia to move level with Ogier and one point clear of Rovanperä, but a crash in Portugal and other setbacks meant the title again slipped away with one round remaining; a late victory at Rally Japan was his third of 2023 and his best season tally to date, after which he said “it feels nice after last year.”
With Rovanperä following Ogier’s lead in not contesting a full 2024 calendar, the season began badly for Evans when, as a BBC report put it, “Elfyn Evans faded to finish a disappointing third behind winner Thierry Neuville at Rallye Monte Carlo.” Neuville went on to become a first-time world champion, Evans finished second in the drivers' standings and his Rally Japan win was his only victory of 2024; Evans said: “We're sorry we couldn't deliver [the drivers'] championship, but we'll try again next year.”
A points-system revamp for 2025 coincided with Evans opening the season strongly, winning Rally Sweden and Kenya to open a 36-point lead — described in the source as the largest championship lead ever recorded after three rounds of a WRC campaign — but he failed to win again and, despite never finishing lower than sixth, saw Sébastien Ogier close the gap to three points with one round remaining. The new Saudi Arabia entry proved brutal, with tyre problems reshuffling the leaderboard; Ogier finished third and Evans sixth, a seven-point swing that handed Ogier a record-equalling ninth title by four points and left Evans a runner-up for the fifth time in six years. After that finale Evans said: “We've done what we can, that's it. We're competitors at the end of the day, we always want better, we always want more.”
Evans took the 2026 championship lead with victory at February's Rally Sweden and has led since, with Toyota team-mates Sami Pajari — who won three rallies in a row — and Oliver Solberg, who won Rally Chile at the start of September, still in contention. He needs at most 19 points to guarantee the title but has not finished higher than third in the five rallies since his Japan win and will open the road in Sardinia, a factor he acknowledged: “I think especially with opening the road, normally in Sardinia it's a significant disadvantage to run first,” adding he will “ignore the championship situation” and that “You can't really afford to [think about the lead]. I have plenty of experience of what not to do,” before concluding, “But you know how it turns out. I think it's far less certain than what it appears on paper.” Rally Italia Sardegna from 1-4 October will decide whether Evans finally converts near-misses into a maiden world title.