Oliver Solberg drove to a sensational victory – Toyota opened the season with a one-two-three

Toyota’s WRC team’s Swedish star Oliver Solberg has won the Monte Carlo WRC rally.

Aki Hietavala

25/01/2026,
14:34

Solberg also became the first Swedish driver in history to win the iconic event when the rally has been run as part of the World Rally Championship. Of course, Erik Carlsson and Björn Waldegård celebrated victory in the event in the 1960s and Ove Andersson in 1971, but at that time the WRC did not yet exist.

This year the conditions in the French Alps were extremely wintry and challenging, so the victory certainly did not come easily. In the end, the Swedish driver took the win by a margin of 51.7 seconds over team-mate Elfyn Evans.

“I don’t understand it at the moment. It’s another emotional day. The most difficult rally I’ve done in my life. It’s my first rally on tarmac for me in the car on tarmac and he we are winning the thing. I just want to say a bigh thank you to Toyota for the trust and the belief. The teamwork has been exceptional,” Solberg enthused.

Sebastien Ogier, who was chasing his 11th Monte Carlo victory of his career, never managed to get to grips with the combination of the conditions and Hankook’s winter tyres during the rally. Toyota’s champion driver surprisingly had to settle for a distant third place, finishing more than two minutes behind the leader. Ogier also lost clearly to Evans in the battle for second place. Rarely seen, Ogier completely gave up the fight on Sunday.

“Hats off, massive congratulations to Oliver, he has done an amazing job. And Elliott as well, he is obviously also working very hard. Also thanks to the team, they have done a great job,” Evans said.

“It’s been a difficult weekend. Mainly happy to be on the podium again. For sure Oliver has done better than everybody was expecting. He has been doing a great job. Good for the championship to have some fresh thing, looking forward to fight with him,” Ogier, for his part, commented.

Fourth place in the rally went to Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, who nevertheless lost almost six minutes to the leader. Hyundai’s rally was poor. Thierry Neuville finished fifth and Hayden Paddon 11:th overall. Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta, meanwhile, finished seventh, ahead of WRC2 class winner Leo Rossel.

For the M-Sport Ford rally team, the season opener turned into a nightmare. Gregoire Munster was forced to retire immediately on Sunday morning due to a technical issue. Josh McErlean, meanwhile, suffered his second retirement of the rally after crashing on Sunday’s second-to-last stage. Rally1 debutant Jon Armstrong, who had been driving an excellent rally, also retired after going off the road on the second-to-last stage. Before his retirement, Armstrong had been running in sixth place.

In the WRC2 class, Leo Rossel drove to the first victory of his career. The Citroen driver eventually took the win by a clear two-minute margin ahead of Italy’s Roberto Dabra. Frenchman Eric Camilli was third in the class.

Final results of the Monte Carlo WRC rally:

POS.	Driver	Car	Time
1.	Oliver Solberg	Toyota	4:24:59.0
2.	Elfyn Evans	Toyota	+51.7
3.	Sebastien Ogier	Toyota	+2:02.1
4.	Adrien Fourmaux	Hyundai	+5:59.3
5.	Thierry Neuville	Hyundai	+10:29.8
6.	Leo Rossel	Citroen	+12:58.4
7.	Takamoto Katsuta	Toyota	+13:05.4
8.	Roberto Dabra	Skoda	+15:07.9
9.	Arthur Pelamourgues	Hyundai	+18:09.4
10.	Eric Camilli	Skoda	+18:36.4