How Solberg lit up WRC title fight in Chile

Chile could yet prove to be one of the pivotal twists in the course of this year’s World Rally Championship title race, which has already navigated through its fair share of hairpins. But this is what makes the WRC captivating, the unpredictability that lies around literally every corner.

Heading into the penultimate stage, Oliver Solberg was on course for an impressive victory. In the title race, championship leader Elfyn Evans appeared set to take a decent stride towards a maiden world title only for that to vanish in an instant. Sitting in second and topping the Super Sunday standings, Evans was in the box seat to increase his points lead over in-form Toyota team-mate Sami Pajari from 20 to potentially 35 points, with two rounds remaining. However, after suffering the frustration of a penultimate stage puncture, that lead is now down to 17, and the title race has become a genuine three-way fight, with Chile victor Solberg having more than halved the deficit.

“I knew it was a long shot, but when I came to South America the plan was to win both [rallies in Paraguay and Chile]," said Solberg after celebrating a third career WRC win. “I think we had the chance in Paraguay to do so but here everything came together well and we could take a lot of points which was very important. The others didn’t have as strong a weekend and a bit of luck. Sometimes you need that and I have had my bad luck and I’m not too far away now which is nice.”

Solberg’s co-driver Elliott Edmondson perhaps summed up the points swing the best: “In the championship with a couple rounds left it certainly has spiced things up. We were trailing a little bit and we have turned things around. I think we are definitely in the fight.”

The ever-changing title picture aside, Solberg’s long awaited second victory of the WRC season after the stunning Monte Carlo season opener success had been coming. In Finland, he was unfortunate to face the worst of the rain, and in Paraguay a starter motor failure struck while leading.

There have never been any question marks over the Swede’s speed this year, perhaps best outlined by the fact he tops the stage wins chart this year with 58 stages wins, 10 more than nearest rival Sebastien Ogier.

Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson "spiced up" the title fight

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Solberg puts harsh lessons into practice

But Solberg has been guilty of failing to convert his speed into results, headlined by crashes in Croatia, Canary Islands, Japan and Greece when in promising positions. Striking the balance of knowing when to push and when to hold back has been the missing piece in Solberg’s armoury. But to his credit, he’s addressed this trend in the second half of the season and, as he says, “rebuilt himself”. The evidence is clear. Solberg has scored more points than any of his rivals since Greece, having picked up 106 points, with Pajari the next best with 97, while Evans has claimed 68 points.

“I know I can win rallies and I've shown many times I can fight at the top. But I think it's also very important to figure out that balance when fighting for a championship,” said Solberg in Estonia, which marked the start of his run that has included two second place finishes while scoring 28 of the 30 Super Sunday points available.

Solberg’s victory in Chile may have lacked the sheer domination he exerted in his previous two triumphs in Monte Carlo and Estonia last year, but in many ways last weekend’s win was perhaps his best yet. It showed that the 24-year-old has learned how to control a rally while facing extreme pressure from his rivals.

This was far from an easy victory. On paper, the Swede led 15 of the 16 stages but that doesn’t really paint the picture accurately. The platform for this win was built on Friday when overnight rain provided blessed relief for the likes of Evans, Pajari and Solberg, starting at the top of the road order and fearing the brunt of the road cleaning effect.

"Anything can happen to anyone, and with the tyres we have, you never know,”
Oliver Solberg

Solberg and Evans made the most of the muddy and slippery conditions to pull clear of the chasing pack early on Friday morning. Pajari on the other hand struggled to make the most of his road position advantage. The Finn has been the WRC’s recent sensation having racked up podium finishes before becoming the first driver in history to claim his first three WRC wins back-to-back. But in the wet, Pajari struggled and that set the tone for the Toyota driver, who was unable to pinpoint a lack of speed in the wet and the dry.

Toyota's other 24-year-old young gun, Solberg, claimed the opening stage before Evans snatched the lead by 0.4s after winning stage two. However, it was Solberg, who headed to the first midday service with a 2.3s lead over Evans, and by the end of Friday that advantage had grown to 10.1s, with Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux in third, 1.7s ahead of Ogier.

Crews had feared Saturday’s dry stages due to the high puncture risk, but the leading contenders emerged through the six tests largely unscathed. Rally1 crews did have the advantage of an extra eight tyres and a tyre exchange point, where they could take on two fresh tyres during the loop. This was introduced by the FIA to reduce the risk of tyre failures.

“Saturday is a completely different type of rally, and it is important to be clever,” said Solberg. “I tried to learn a little bit about that today with the car. Today was important to learn for tomorrow. It will be the most important day.

“The gap is not a lot, and it is good to have the gap and when it is going to be hard for the tyres, we don’t have to take the final risk. But anything can happen to anyone, especially if it is going to be hot and dry, and with the tyres we have, you never know.”

Sebastien Ogier: "There is a long way to go"

Photo by: Toyota Racing

The concerns were not only held by the rally leader.

“There is a long way to go, and we expect many things to happen tomorrow [Saturday] and the tyres are going to be suffering much more tomorrow. We might see more issues on that topic and let’s hope we can stay out of trouble,” said Ogier.

M-Sport-Ford’s Josh McErlean, who went on to finish seventh after a brush with a bank on Sunday, added: “It is a completely different character of roads. The stages are very long and demanding and tyre wear will be crucial. If everyone gets through tomorrow cleanly, I will be surprised.”

Small mistakes deliver big consequences

The puncture fears didn’t materialise on Saturday, with McErlean the only driver to suffer, but Chile’s stages certainly bared their teeth. Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville has previously experienced how Chile's gravel stages can bite when he survived a violent crash in 2019. Fast forward seven years and Neuville’s i20 N was pitched into a series of rolls again, this time after slightly misjudging a high-speed section in stage seven (Pelun). Luckily, driver and co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe escaped unscathed but that was the end of their rally.

“Basically, I came into a compression slightly too fast, and I got kicked out of the line and we ended up in a roll,” said Neuville, who was sitting in sixth. “Luckily me and Martijn are fine. We had tried to push this morning to claim back some positions, that was our target and there was nothing to lose. We went for it but obviously we were a little bit too fast.”

"I don’t know what to do anymore because I’m trying to be careful and still having problems,"
Jon Armstrong

Moments later, M-Sport-Ford’s Jon Armstrong was punished for a small error in stage eight (Lota). The Northern Irishman had been desperate for a clean rally, but a pace note that was slightly too fast ultimately pitched his Ford Puma onto its side and into retirement.

“The car understeered and we went to the outside and hit a bank and we rolled on our side," said a despondent Armstrong. “I don’t know what to do anymore because I’m trying to be careful and still having problems. It’s very, very difficult at the moment.”

These two accidents came after Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta retired on the first stage for the second event in succession. This time, the Japanese driver was joined by James Fulton, standing in for regular co-driver Aaron Johnston who suffered a broken collarbone in roll in Paraguay. Six kilometres into the Turquia stage and the pair were climbing out of their beached GR Yaris on the side of the road after Katsuta lost control of the rear in the mud.

“Unfortunately one of the corners, kind of downhill corner, there was quite a muddy corner and I was just not able to slow down enough,” said Katsuta. “Actually, the speed was not very, very high but we just went wide on the outside and then hit the bank and unfortunately we were stuck after.

“So very tough, very unfortunate the things that are happening now and facing a very difficult moment, so it’s not easy. I will try to focus and come back stronger.”

Adrien Fourmaux fought a hard battle for third

Photo by: Hyundai

Solberg controls intense four-way fight

Back at the front, the pace was intense with Solberg and Evans posting identical overall times across the Saturday morning loop as Solberg maintained the 10.1s lead he built across Friday. In fact, the top four were split by a mind boggling 0.3s across 69.6km.

Behind, the battle for third raged as Fourmaux and Ogier swapped positions three times across the day. A soft tyre gamble for Fourmaux paid off in the morning loop, but he was unable to repeat the feat in the afternoon.

A stunning run to win stage nine moved Solberg into a 19.1s lead over Evans, who managed to hold off a charging Ogier. Four stage wins from six tests for Ogier heaped pressure on Evans as the gap between the pair came down to 1.3s at the end of Saturday. Fourmaux headed into Sunday’s final four stages 13.7s adrift of the lead and 10.7s behind third-placed Ogier.

Even equipped with a lead that seemed large given the fractions of seconds the quartet at the front were fighting over, Solberg showed restraint – even though he is the WRC's Super Sunday speedster.

"I felt pretty good in the car and out of nowhere I felt something go on the front left,"
Elfyn Evans

“I always do my thing on Sundays, and now it's just a different position in the rally. I think it's possible [to get all 10 points], but I will not go over the limit to do so,” said Solberg. “I don't think anyone will because it's very tricky tomorrow. So, let's see. The first stage tomorrow will be the proper one.”

Costly sting in the tail for Evans

Solberg was indeed correct. Sunday’s final four sages were tricky and particularly punishing on the Hankook tyres. Fourmaux picked up a puncture in the brand new mammoth Carampangue (stage 13) test before suffering another in the following BioBio stage. Solberg was also fortunate his tyre failure came towards the end of the BioBio test and before a tyre exchange point, preventing any serious time loss.

At the front, Evans had set the pace by winning stage 13, and grabbed an early lead in the Super Sunday standings while pulling 5.4s clear of the chasing Ogier and reducing Solberg’s lead to 13.2s.

However, Evans’ title hopes suffered a blow on the second pass through Carampangue as a puncture forced a wheel change, dropping the Toyota driver from second to fifth.

“It was all going well today and it was going to plan, and I felt pretty good in the car and out of nowhere I felt something go on the front left. Normally we have TPMS [tyre pressure warning system] but it happened to be picking up the spare [wheel] actually on that corner. We didn’t get any warning and then there was a bit of doubt, but clearly again it was a puncture and I have no idea where,” said Evans, who had to settle for fifth overall behind Pajari before salvaging four points from the Power Stage.

“It feels a bit harsh at the moment. Some others got punctures but in a lucky place, just a kilometre from the end of the second stage, so the time loss was minimal. That is how it is. Today things were going pretty well but sometimes it doesn’t go your way.

“We are still in an okay position and we will continue to fight on.”

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Although clearly not wanting to benefit from a team-mate’s drama, the puncture provided a favourable points swing for Pajari, who seemed destined to lose ground in the title race after an unusual subdued display.

“This was a tricky rally for us,” said Pajari. “It wasn’t the result we would have wanted and the pace was not as good as we hoped for, but today we tried to maximise what we could, and we were able to gain a few important points. In the end we didn’t lose anything because Elfyn was unfortunate today, and the championship fight is getting really interesting with Oliver doing a very good job here and scoring lots of points."

For Solberg, the plan worked perfectly. Extra caution to protect his tyres in the afternoon offered a platform to perform his now customary Power Stage brilliance to leave Chile with victory and a whopping 34 points. It also provided the cherry on top of the cake for Toyota as the Japanese marque wrapped up a record equalling 10th WRC Manufacturers’ title.

“I feel in the last few rallies I’ve had the feeling that I’ve been able to fight for victories, but just a few small bits of bad luck have interrupted the chance to do it. But finally, now everything went smoothly with the car, myself, everything and I could just focus on doing my thing and drive on,” said Solberg, who took the win by 16.6s from Ogier.

“It was an unbelievable weekend. From start to finish I was happy with the consistency and the control of when to outs and when not to push. It was not an easy weekend but an incredible one.”

In the battle for the Frenchmen, it was reigning world champion Ogier that prevailed over Fourmaux and with it came yet more staggering statistics. This was Ogier's 120th WRC podium which puts him level with record holder Sebastien Loeb.

Sebastien Ogier claimed his 120th WRC podium

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Ogier has also now been part of a staggering 13 manufacturer title successes across his career driving for Citroen, Volkswagen, M-Sport-Ford and Toyota.

“Congratulations to the whole Toyota team: one more time we are world champions altogether," said Ogier. “Hats off to everybody at the factory and every single member of our team because winning so many years in a row is a special achievement and it’s never easy. Nobody in the team takes anything for granted and we are always trying to improve, which is the mentality I’ve always tried to have in my career, and it has been great fun driving this car.

“This weekend after the time we lost in the first stage it was a big fight to try and come back towards the top positions. We couldn’t quite get the win – congratulations to Oliver and Elliott who did a great job – but it’s still a podium so we have many reasons to smile.”

For Fourmaux, the wait for a maiden WRC win goes on but with each event the knocking on the door to the WRC winners club is becoming louder and louder.

“To be honest, we have no regrets this weekend, we tried everything to optimise the tyre package that we had; it didn’t pay off which is a shame because I feel like I can push a lot more in the stages, but the tyres don’t allow us, said Fourmaux, who claimed a fourth podium of the year.

“Friday was the key point and the first stage made a big difference for the weekend. A big fight for three days and it's been fantastic driving this car.”