Rally Sweden: Can Oliver Solberg double his winnings?

Everyone still remembers the recital given by the Swedish prodigy during the last Rally Monte Carlo. Oliver Solberg, barely 24 years old, dominated the most complicated rally on the planet, despite it being his first outing at the wheel of the Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 on an asphalt rally. It's worth remembering that our friend Oliver was no stranger to this: last year in Estonia, he secured his first victory in WRC for, this time, his very first rally in the car. Now that the leader of the World Rally Championship has triumphed on gravel and on a mixed asphalt made of snow, ice and mud, can he repeat the feat this weekend in Sweden, take his third victory in as many races as a Toyota Gazoo Racing driver and, at the same time, already stun his rivals barely into February?

The Evans case law

To find some answers to these questions, we need to go back a year to the 2025 Rally Sweden. A few days earlier, at Monte Carlo, Sébastien Ogier He had won but hadn't made the trip to Umeå. It therefore fell to his runner-up, Elfyn Evans, to open the road in Sweden, a position not always ideal in rallies where the first cars to go usually set the tracks for their rivals. Nevertheless, Evans set the fastest time on the very first stage, then battled throughout the rally with Takamoto Katsuta, the Japanese driver perfectly optimizing his more distant starting position. Ultimately, the Welshman emerged victorious and, unknowingly, already hinted at a possible outcome for the 2026 edition: winning Sweden at the wheel of a Toyota starting first on the road on the first day is indeed a real possibility.

A first success that calls for others

The same 2025 Rally Sweden hosted the second round of the WRC2 season. The winner, as a reminder? Oliver Solberg, quite simply. With eleven stage wins out of eighteen contested, the Swede dominated the competition in his second rally at the wheel of the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. So, to the question of whether Solberg can be fast on snow, the answer is yes. Leading from start to finish, Oliver perfectly controlled the situation, maintaining a gap of over twenty seconds on his rivals, while extending it when necessary. Already clear-headed at that time and fully focused on his world title goal, the young man left Umeå as the championship leader, a position he would sometimes relinquish to Yohan Rossel before definitively regaining it.

In front of his family

Let's not forget the most important thing: this week, Oliver Solberg is racing on home soil. Born in Norway like his father, he chose early on to follow in his mother Pernilla's footsteps and represent Sweden. In fact, this second round of the season is "his," and he'll undoubtedly capitalize on his current popularity with every meter he covers in the car. You have to go back to 2006 to find a Swedish driver on the rally podium; it was Daniel Carlsson at the wheel of a privately entered Mitsubishi Lancer WRC 05. The previous year, Petter Solberg won for Subaru, but the last Swedish victory was 29 years ago: Kenneth Eriksson in 1997, driving a Subaru Impreza WRC. Suffice it to say, the residents of the "long country" are eagerly awaiting a successor to Stig Blomqvist and his seven victories in their beloved rally.

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First break point in hand

In practical terms, Oliver Solberg could pull off a major coup in Umeå this week. If he were to win, it would be the first time since 2016 that a driver has won the first two rounds of the season: a feat achieved exactly ten years ago by Sébastien Ogier, who won Monte Carlo and Sweden within a few weeks. It goes without saying that the Gap native's season ended with his fourth World Rally Championship title, a statistic that could further whet Oliver Solberg's appetite. Beyond a mathematical advantage, he could already gain a psychological edge over his rivals: in reality, Elfyn Evans, if he were to finish on the podium, would still be very much in contention for the title. But in a season that could be the Welshman's last chance for the championship, that could already feel like a major setback…