– Oliver Solberg (Toyota) defended his lead from Friday on Saturday at the Rally Chile, the third-to-last round of the 2026 World Rally Championship (WRC) season, but behind him things got turbulent.
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Six special stages (SS7 to SS12) covering a total distance of 140 kilometers against the clock were on the program for the second leg. The conditions were once again anything but easy. This was evident not least from the fact that there were three rollovers and another serious accident.
After the Friday leg was extremely close among the top 6, Solberg started the Saturday leg as the rally leader, with a 10.1-second lead over Toyota teammate and championship leader Elfyn Evans.
In the morning, Solberg took a stage best time (SS9). Before that, the first two stage best times of the day went to Sebastien Ogier (Toyota). Also in the afternoon, when the same three stages were run a second time, Ogier took two stage best times and Solberg one (SS12).
After the completion of the Saturday leg, Oliver Solberg now has a 19.1-second lead over Elfyn Evans. As the third Toyota driver, Sebastien Ogier has pushed up to third place with his four stage best times, displacing Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai) to fourth. The competition remains tight. After a total of 240 kilometers of special stages, spread over Friday and Saturday, the top 4 are within 32 seconds.
Fifth remains Sami Pajari (Toyota), who now has more than a minute deficit after a slip in the morning. Sixth is Esapekka Lappi (Hyundai), followed by Joshua McErlean (M-Sport-Ford). McErlean lost time in the morning due to a tire damage on his Ford Puma Rally1. At noon, he also received a time penalty for leaving the service park late.
Rollovers by Neuville, Armstrong, Gryazin
Not only in the fight for the top positions, but also behind, Saturday in Chile was turbulent. Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) rolled over directly on the first stage of the day (SS7). Jon Armstrong (M-Sport-Ford) showed a very similar scene on the following stage. And Lancia driver Nikolay Gryazin, who had led the WRC2 classification, also recorded a rollover.
The rollover of Hyundai factory driver Neuville was the first in time. He and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe held sixth place in the rally standings at the time of the crash. Both remained uninjured. However, because the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 was severely damaged, they will not rejoin the action on Sunday.
“I was a bit too fast and got lifted in a rut,” Neuville reports. “Fortunately, Martijn and I are fine. We had tried to push to make up positions. We had nothing to lose. We gave it our all but were obviously a bit too fast.”
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The Hyundai team confirms in a statement that the rally is over early for Neuville: “Due to severe damage the car sustained during the rollover on SS7, Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe will not continue the Rally Chile. The team will focus on preparing the car for the Sardinia Rally in Italy.” (WRC calendar 2026)
After Neuville’s rollover on SS7, M-Sport-Ford driver Jon Armstrong moved up to sixth place in the Rally Chile standings. However, on SS8 he also rolled over. Armstrong and co-driver Shane Byrne (not to be confused with motorcycle racer Shane Byrne) also remained uninjured.
Armstrong reports with disappointment: “The car understeered and went wide in a corner where we hit an embankment and rolled over. I don’t know what else to do. I’m already trying to drive carefully. Still, the problems don’t end. It’s really a very difficult phase.”
The third rollover of the day occurred in the WRC2 field, where Nikolay Gryazin had led the standings after the Friday leg. Gryazin and co-driver Konstantin Aleksandrov rolled their Lancia Ypsilon HF. This crew also escaped unscathed. The new WRC2 leader is Yohan Rossel (Lancia). In the overall rally classification, this currently means eighth place.
Cancellation of the penultimate stage of the day after serious accident
On the penultimate stage of the day (SS11), there was also a serious crash in the WRC3 field. This led to the cancellation of the stage. The field of Rally1 cars and most of the WRC2 field had already completed the stage at that time and were already on SS12.
The FIA statement on the WRC3 accident: “After a serious accident involving the crew of car number 51 (Calle Carlberg/Jörgen Eriksen) on SS11 (“Lota 2″), the race director ordered a red flag for this stage. The crew was immediately attended to by medical teams on site and will be airlifted to a local hospital for precautionary further medical examinations.”
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On Sunday, Rally Chile concludes with the last four of the total 16 special stages.
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