What happened to Evans and Solberg at WRC Rally Croatia

Elfyn Evans says he was simply “caught out” by a corner at Rally Croatia as the World Rally Championship leader suffered a rare back-to-back rally retirement. 

The Toyota driver took early command in Croatia winning the opening two stages to open up a 15.8s lead before that advantage was wiped out on stage three. 

Evans usually carried way too much speed into a tight right hand corner that resulted in his GR Yaris firing off the road at speed. Onboard vision appeared to show some confusion over a pace note heading into the corner. 

While Evans and co-driver Scott Martin were unharmed, they were unable to recover the car and suffered their second retirement in a row after exiting Safari Rally Kenya last month.

The exit has come as a surprise given Evans has showcased stunning consistency with this only his second retirement since Greece 2024. 

When asked to explain what happened, Evans said: “We’ve been caught out basically. The corner was a bit tighter than expected and we were way too fast and we went off into the trees, unfortunately. It is very disappointing. Obviously, it was a strong start and things were going well, but it didn’t end so well.

“I think it [the pacenote] was okay. 

“It [the car] was really working quite well. It is not easy. Obviously, as we know with this rally, there are always a few surprises with the changing surfaces. It’s very difficult to read.”

Solberg stumbles

Oliver Solberg, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Evans wasn’t the only high profile retirement, as his nearest rival in the championship Oliver Solberg crashed out of the rally, just 4.8km into the opening stage.

The Monte Carlo winner clipped a rock face that sent his GR Yaris into a 360 spin before running off the road and becoming beached, ending his day before it had really begun.

“Firstly from an experience point of view, it’s the first time I tried a hard tyre really on the car, and first time on proper tarmac. The feeling in the car and how we worked with the car has been fantastic,” said an emotional Solberg.

“But for sure, when it was tricky out there with a hard tyre and trying to understand it, and with a limited experience, I basically just drove a little bit too fast in this corner and just underestimated the small window I had with the grip and I had a small understeer and just touched the wall there, and that’s it.

“The team has been very supportive and understanding, and we’ve had good talks together, and we just move on and fight for the future. They believe in me, and that’s definitely helped my spirit.”

Oliver Solberg, Elliott Edmondson, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Reflecting on the incident, Solberg says it highlights his limited experience at the top level, while offering a reminder that at times he needs to take a step back and learn for the future.

“The road itself is quite straightforward. For sure, with my ethic, with my experience, and everything, maybe deciding to use the hard compound tyres was optimistic, not trying it before. With the little experience, maybe I was a bit too confident to do my speed with that tyre. And that’s something for me to learn, to understand when the feeling is not there,” he added.

“It is the same for everybody, probably. I just need to take a step back and understand that I don’t have so much experience with the tyre, maybe and I need to adapt to it. Even if the feeling in my driving and the pace notes and the car was great I just need to understand the hard tyre is something I need to learn more about for the future.

“I don’t have a lot of experience with this car and I also underestimate this. I’m here to do the best I can and drive as fast as I can and want to fight. I think today was the best example of when you don’t have any experience on the hard tyre, trying it for the first time, with these fast cars and these conditions, I need to learn and take it step by step.”

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– The Autosport.com Team