Now, that is how you rewrite a championship race in a single morning. The Toyota Gazoo Racing driver put on a clinic during the morning loop, charging past overnight leader Thierry Neuville to reach the midday halt with a 2.7sec advantage sitting proudly over the Hyundai star.
More significantly, Solberg's rise to the front combined with championship leader Elfyn Evans running sixth has reduced Evans' provisional points advantage from 21 before the rally to just four. Evans currently remains ahead on 238 points, with Solberg on 234 and Sami Pajari third on 223, although seven stages and all 10 Sunday bonus points are still to come.
I’m not realistically going to catch anybody in front, so I’ve got to stay clean for now.
Saturday's first major twist arrived on SS8 when Adrien Fourmaux suffered a front-left puncture. The Frenchman, who had started the day just 0.4sec behind Neuville, lost almost one minute and dropped from second to fifth. Neuville won the stage and emerged 14.4sec clear of Solberg, but that advantage disappeared rapidly.
Solberg was fastest on the following 24.83km Coiluna - Loelle test, beating Sébastien Ogier by 2.6sec and taking 11.1sec out of Neuville to close within 3.3sec of the lead. He then underlined that intent on the new Solorche stage, setting another fastest time and beating Neuville by six seconds to move ahead overall.
“Happy with the car,” Solberg said. “I was a bit careful sometimes. It was a tricky stage, I didn’t want to take any risks and just tried to have a rhythm. I tried to stay clean and do my best.”
Neuville remains firmly in contention for the rally win and expects the fight to continue when action resumes on Saturday afternoon. “Oliver will go all-in and we’re going to see how it works,” said the Belgian. “Overall I’m sure we can stay in the fight with Oliver.”
Behind the leading pair, Ogier holds third place, 39.9sec from the lead, while Fourmaux recovered from his puncture to climb back to fourth. Pajari sits fifth, 1min 15.5sec down, after outpacing Evans on all three morning stages. The Finn has opened a 42.2sec advantage over his championship-leading team-mate.
“[The title fight is] a bit out of my control, I feel, with the road cleaning so much,” Evans admitted. “I’m not realistically going to catch anybody in front, so I’ve got to stay clean for now.” Evans entered Sardinia knowing that a 19-point score would guarantee him the championship regardless of his rivals’ results. His current sixth place is worth eight points, leaving the fight finely poised heading into Saturday afternoon.
