That is how you turn a rally completely on its head. The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver started the day sitting third and 12.3sec behind overnight leader Thierry Neuville, but a brilliant morning charge changed everything. Winning SS9 and SS10 allowed him to wipe out the advantage and reach the midday halt 2.7sec ahead.
Then the chaos hit. Neuville crashed just 1.1km into SS11 in his Hyundai i20 N Rally1, suffering damage to the rear and handing the lead to Solberg with a margin of over half a minute. From that moment, the Toyota Gazoo Racing machine shifted from outright attack into pure preservation mode across brutal roads.
Of course, now we have to try and change the strategy a bit,
"I just tried to do my thing and enjoy it and have fun," Solberg said after the day-closing Solorche test. "This afternoon I was a bit more careful, but I enjoyed it in there. So far, we are doing a great job. We will do our job and see what happens."
Right behind him sits Sébastien Ogier, who inherited second place after Neuville's exit. The nine-time champion trails by 33.6sec after claiming wins on SS11 and SS12, though he knows hunting down the leader on Sunday's unforgiving tracks will take an immense effort. "There are still some long stages to go tomorrow with rough sections, so nothing is done," Ogier said. "Beating Oliver will be difficult, but we will see."
Behind them, Sami Pajari survived a punishing Saturday to hold third place, sitting 1min 39.9sec off the lead and keeping himself mathematically in the championship battle. Further drama unfolded on SS12 when Adrien Fourmaux suffered his second tyre failure of the day—following an earlier puncture in the morning—which dropped the Hyundai driver behind Pajari and championship leader Elfyn Evans. But Fourmaux bounced right back by winning SS13, beating Solberg by 1.8sec to reclaim fourth overall and leave himself just 6.4sec ahead of Evans.
That late shift dropped Evans back to fifth overall, trimming his provisional championship advantage down to just six points. On the live standings, Evans holds 240 points, six clear of Solberg on 234, with Pajari sitting on 228. "Of course, now we have to try and change the strategy a bit," Evans admitted. "I don’t think it will be straightforward tomorrow. Today has been a tough day to try and hang in there with Oliver going so fast at the front. We have a long way to go. We have a tough day tomorrow. It is still wide open."
With a maximum of 10 additional points available on Sunday split between the Super Sunday classification and the Wolf Power Stage, the title fight is genuinely wide open. If current positions hold, Solberg would need to outscore Evans by six points across Sunday's bonuses to draw level, which would hand the title to the Swede on a countback of rally wins. Behind the title contenders, Takamoto Katsuta climbed to sixth after a tough start to the weekend, Jon Armstrong holds seventh, and Josh McErlean sits eighth after fighting to the finish despite car damage and rising water temperatures from an off on SS12.
The conclusion arrives tomorrow with the 23.71km Osilo – Tergu test before heading into Sassari – Argentiera. Both stages run twice, with the final 7.10km pass through Sassari – Argentiera serving as the season-ending Wolf Power Stage.
