How Tight Will the WRC Title Battle Be?

Pulse Sports Team 14:21 - 29 July 2026

Elfyn Evans leads the championship after seven of nine rounds in 2026, but he doesn't believe anyone will pull away in the final, gravel-only stretch of the season.

All five Toyota drivers have already won World Rally Championship events this season, matching Fiat's 1977 record. As a result, all five are in contention for the title heading into Rally Finland, the tenth of 14 rounds.

Elfyn Evans tops the standings with 177 points, 25 clear of Takamoto Katsuta, while Sami Pajari sits third, 33 points adrift. Sébastien Ogier and Oliver Solberg are further back, trailing by 38 and 47 points respectively.

Although Evans has led the standings after seven of the nine rounds completed so far and appears to have a solid advantage, the effect of road sweeping on gravel is known to penalize the first car on the road. This will be Evans' role in Rally Finland and most likely in Rally Paraguay thereafter.

This is why he has repeatedly tempered enthusiasm regarding the championship, as no one knows how things will unfold without any asphalt rounds remaining in the season, which could ease the pressure on the standings leader.

"I think the reality is we're going to see everybody bunch up in the next few rallies and it's probably going to be quite a tight finish to the year, I would imagine," Evans told dirtfish.com.

"But conditions are going to play a big part, and what happens in the next few rallies. So there's not much point in speculating too much. We just need to focus and do what we can."

Should the title battle go down to the wire in the final round, it would mark the fifth time this decade such a scenario has occurred.

However, Evans' immediate focus is on achieving a maximum result in Rally Finland – an event he has won twice, in 2021 and 2023.

"Conditions will always dictate whether you can fight or not, starting first on the road, but the aim is always, if the conditions are with you, to try and fight for the win," he said.

"Let's wait and see how it is. We need to approach it like any other rally and do our best."

A week after Finland, Evans and co-driver Scott Martin will travel to Scotland for the Grampian Forest Rally – the candidate event for Rally Scotland ahead of its anticipated inclusion in the 2027 World Rally Championship calendar.

It is expected that Evans will drive the stages in a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, but he will not be competing; instead, he will serve as a 'forerunner' with the number 0 on board – similar to what Ott Tänak did at Rally di Roma Capitale earlier this month.