WRC

Sébastien Ogier wins dramatic Rally Islas Canarias to take WRC lead after Solberg crash

Motorsport Technology
6 months ago
3 min read

Sébastien Ogier won a dramatic Rally Islas Canarias in a season of dramatic wins after fellow Toyota driver Oliver Solberg crashed out of contention in the final stage.

For a while, it had looked set for a grandstand final stage finish between Ogier and Solberg.

But the momentum switched decisively in Ogier’s favour when Solberg lost control of his GR Yaris Rally1 on the second pass of Ingenio – Valsequillo, hitting a bollard and damaging his car irreparably.

It meant that Ogier stopped the clock 19.9sec ahead of Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin, with Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen still completing an all-Toyota podium.

Significantly, for statisticians of the sport, the result meant that Toyota claimed 300 podium finishes in WRC. A quite remarkable achievement.

“It is not the way we wanted to see it go,” a humble Ogier is quoted on wrc.com.

“Oliver was doing a great job up until that point. Rallying is tough. Being fast is important but being at the end even more. I never panicked when I saw him pushing and I kept my rhythm.

Sébastien Ogier (FRA), Vincent Landais (FRA) celebrate on the podium in first place after winning the World Rally Championship in Las Palmas, Spain on 26.04.2026 / Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool /

“It’s been, first and foremost, very enjoyable. We had a great car to drive again and it was good fun, so well done to all the team. It’s been extremely close the whole weekend with my team-mates, especially with Oliver.

“It’s a shame we could not all finish together and bring this show up to the end, but on our side, I think we did what we had to do and I am pretty happy to win a new rally on the list.”

For the magnanimous Solberg, son of the great Petter, there was admittance that the stage got away with him after pushing too hard.

“The first pass this morning was quite wet and now it was much drier. I was too optimistic with this right-hander that had a jump and we went into the armco unfortunately.”

Sébastien Ogier during the World Rally Championship Spain in Las Palmas, Spain on 25 April, 2026 // Jaanus Ree / Red Bull Content Pool /

With Evans’ second place finish, it’s all change at the top of the standings.

The Welshman now leads the drivers’ championship on 101 points, two ahead of Rally Kenya and Croatia winner Takamoto Katsuta with Sami Pajari a further 27 points behind the Japanese driver.

“It’s been a solid weekend,” added Evans on WRC. “I think it was a poor start. Unfortunately, that put us a bit out of the fight for the win, so mixed feelings. But congrats to Seb, he’s driven an exceptional weekend, and he deserves the win here.”

Next up is the Vodafone Rally de Portugal, with racing resuming on the challenging gravel stage from 7 – 10 May.

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