Into the action then with the first full day of stages at this significant championship deciding round. The first stage though was run on Thursday afternoon. After the short 2.21-kilometre stage, Oliver was fastest from Seb and Elfyn, whilst the other championship contender, Sami was fourth.
Friday dawned sunny, dry and warm and this would mean that Elfyn and Scott would as the championship leaders be cleaning the road of gravel and giving those behind a better road position.
Into SS2 Tula – Erula 1 then and it was a good start for Adrien who set the pace from Seb and Sami. Elfyn did well in this one, setting the sixth best time although Sami did pass Elfyn in this one, the Finn moving into third overall. There was some little drama for Oliver as one of the tyres punctured near the end of the stage. He would fall to seventh position from the lead.
It was a good run for Thierry in SS3 Su Filigosu – Lerno 1 as he took the stage win from Oliver and Adrien. Elfyn was sixth fastest again and saw his Swedish teammate move past him and into fourth. Seb though was next to have problems and suffered a puncture and fell seven positions to eighth overall. Dani also had a puncture losing time changing it and then just as he restarted, Robert Virves who is this years WRC2 champion in his Skoda, came past the Spaniard. The Hyundai driver would run in the dust of the Estonian and lose even more time.
Onto the final morning stage, SS4 Monti di Ala’ – Sa Conchedda – Lerno 1 and this was the longest stage of the day at just over twenty-three kilometres. Oliver would set the pace in this one from Seb, whilst Adrien was third. The Swedes pace would see him pass Sami and move into the final podium positions. Seb was also on the move, gaining three positions and passing Elfyn who now sat in sixth. It was a hard stage for the Welshman as the found the road was so tricky to set any decent pace losing over fifteen seconds just in this single stage.
After the service break came SS5 Tula – Erula 2 Adrien was again fastest from Thierry and Dani this time. The best of the Toyota crews was Seb with the fourth fastest time and was ahead of Sami, Takamoto, Oliver and Elfyn.
The penultimate stage of the day, SS6 Su Filigosu – Lerno 2 saw another stage win for Hyundai, with Thierry setting the pace from Oliver and Adrien. Takamoto had a puncture near the end of the stage yet still managed to gain four positions and climbed into tenth overall. Adrien continued to hold the lead from Thierry by a reduced margin, whilst Oliver was holding third overall.
The final stage then, SS7 Monti di Ala’ – Sa Conchedda – Lerno 2 and Thierry was again fastest from Oliver and Adrien. We lost Dani in this one as he went wide and clipped something at the edge of the road on the right, which then meant the car became uncontrollable and came to a stop of the left-side of the road. Meanwhile, there was a change for the lead as Thierry passed Adrien. Also moving up the leaderboard was Seb who passed Sami for fourth overall. The good news was that all three championship rivals had made it to the end of the first full day of action with no issues.
Let’s hear from the drivers and take a look at the top ten positions.
Hyundai Motorsport
Thierry Neuville
“We end today with a small lead, but it is a lead, nonetheless. I’m obviously very happy to be in this position, but anything close to first overall would have been a good result today. I found the pace and the energy required to fight for victory on a rally like this, and I was progressing nicely throughout today. The conditions were quite stable, and I had good grip – we kept fresh tyres for the final stage, which we know can really make the difference at the end of a hot and abrasive loop. Adrien and I are both focused on bringing home a strong result for the team. The rally is still long, but our target is clear.”
13 Round, Rally Italia Sardegna
01- 04 October 2026
Photographer: Dufour Fabien
Wordwide copyright: Hyundai Motorsport GmbH
Adrien Fourmaux
“Today has been a very positive day. We had a good push on the first stage of the afternoon and gained quite a lot of time compared to the others. After that, I was managing the risk of punctures – unfortunately on the last stage, we had a lot of unexpected dust. This made it very hard to see the apex of corners, and with the amount of bedrock in places, I chose to be more cautious and that lost me time. It’s a shame to lose the lead, but four tenths of a second at a rally like this is easily overcome; tomorrow, I’m aiming to push and regain the position. The fight with Thierry and Oliver will be interesting.”
Dani Sordo
We’ve had a very difficult day here in Sardinia, and it is a huge shame to end in retirement. There were points when we felt good in the car, and the afternoon was looking like a big improvement on the morning, where we lost time changing a puncture and then getting caught behind Virves. It was good to take a 1-2-3 for the team on SS5, and I really enjoyed SS6, but sadly we were unable to end the day on a positive note after going off on the final stage. We will be back tomorrow to support the team to bring home a strong result.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT
Oliver Solberg
“It’s been a great day for us. I think we can be happy with the job we’ve done considering our road position. We were unfortunate to lose about six seconds with the puncture in the first stage this morning, but lucky on the other hand not to lose more time. I was a bit cautious on the second pass of that stage to avoid another issue, but on the other two stages we pushed quite hard and had a good feeling in the car. We will just continue with the same strategy tomorrow, trying to avoid trouble but also see if we can close the gaps in front with more equal road positions.”
Sébastien Ogier
“We didn’t have the best day today; we would have hoped to be higher than fourth tonight. Unfortunately, it didn’t go my way this morning and most of our time loss came with this puncture. After that I was probably a bit too cautious, trying to avoid every stone and stay out of trouble, and so we weren’t especially fast. It wasn’t an ideal day but we will try to be better tomorrow, hope we can focus on enjoying the driving, and see what happens.”
Sami Pajari
“It’s been a tricky day, but I feel like we probably did all that we could. It’s difficult to judge our performance given the road positions, as we were quicker than Elfyn in all the stages but not as fast as Oliver. I was quite happy with the job that we did in the morning, and we were not too far away, but the afternoon seemed to be more difficult and unfortunately we just lost one position at the end. At least we have avoided any issues, so we are still in the fight, and nothing is lost. Tomorrow our road position should be better and let’s see if our pace can also be stronger and we can keep up the fight.”
Elfyn Evans
“It’s been a tough day, like we anticipated in our position. We didn’t make a bad start this morning, and generally everything has felt quite OK in the car, but the stage times were just not where we would have wanted them to be, especially this afternoon. We at least managed to avoid trouble, which is important, and our position overall is not far off what we could have hoped for today. Tomorrow our road position will be much better, and although it might be tricky to try and close any gaps ahead, we just need to keep doing what we can and keep ourselves in a good position.”
Takamoto Katsuta
“It’s been a frustrating day for us. The conditions on the stages were pretty rough, and we were trying to get through without any problems. Unfortunately, we had to stop and change a tyre in the third stage of the loop – it seems that we were not the only ones to have issues in that one. Going into the afternoon we were hoping to avoid any further issues, but still we lost some time with some punctures. Hopefully tomorrow we can have a cleaner day and find a good feeling.”
Classification after Day One
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Saturday
The second full day of action will see the crews tackle 123 kilometres over six stages. Elfyn and Scott will have an improved road position as he secured sixth. The Welshman will have at least four cars into the stage before he starts. Sami will need to pass a few drivers to move up the standings, whilst Oliver will have to pass both Hyundai drivers to make the most of his championship chances and all three of them will want to do this, whilst keeping out of trouble.
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