2025 has given Oliver Solberg a maiden World Rally Championship win - and now a WRC2 title
Photography by Toyota
Words by David Evans, DirtFish Head of Media
Where do you start for Oliver Solberg’s 2025? It’s been an astonishing year for the 23-year-old.
He’s returned to rallying’s top-flight, won his first stage, won his first rally and now won his first world championship. He got engaged, had his first tattoo and won over the hearts of yet another South American country. And we’re only in September…
Shortly after he and Elliott Edmondson captured this year’s WRC2 title, Oliver sat down and relayed his thoughts, event-by-event, on 2025.
“This was our first ever outing with Printsport and the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2. It’s so exciting to start a new chapter like this, but Monte is never the easiest place to introduce yourself to a new car! Despite typically changeable conditions, I think we did a pretty good job. We won a lot of stages, but missed out on the class win after some suspension damage on the first night.
“The encouraging thing for me and Elliott was that we saw we had the pace to win straight away with the Yaris. That made us very happy.”
“If there’s one event you want to win in the season, it’s the home round. We were scoring WRC2 points for the first time in 2025 in Umeå and there was definitely some pressure after we won this one for the previous two years.
“We had the perfect rally and won for the third time. It was such a good feeling. The car felt fantastic, the team was really working and it was amazing to share this win with so many family and friends.”
“This one was quite hard to take… we built such a good lead through the first day, we were driving sensibly with no risk. On the first stage on Saturday morning, we were the first Rally2 car in and we got stuck in the soft sand on the road. It was impossible to pass.
“We had to stop and we retired for the day. So frustrating, when the car was perfect.”
“With this being the first Tarmac rally in the Toyota, we decided not to score points and I have to say I was quite glad! We had a small transmission problem on the first day which cost us some time. But, to be honest, we were working a lot with the car and the team to find the right set-up and when we came to Sunday, we were really comfortable and able to set a lot of fastest times among the Rally2 cars.”
“I have to admit, I was a little bit nervous before the start in Portugal. OK, we had done Safari, but this was the first time on more typical gravel roads for the WRC. I didn’t need to worry, Toyota did a fantastic job with the GR Yaris Rally2 and Printsport is the perfect team to run the car.
“I love Portugal, so many fans and so much passion. In some of the stages, I was trying to make a show for them and bring some smoke from the tires. And, of course, it was nice to be – legally – allowed to do some donuts for the crowd!
“This was a good win. It helped to settle the nerves for Elliott and me. We had the feeling that we were really on the road now.”
“We touched a wall on the second stage and dropped a minute. After that, it was all about fighting back and building more and more confidence on the harder Hankook tire.
“The feeling kept getting better and better with the car and we were able to come all the way back to win the Rally2 class on Sunday. On Friday I was quite glad we didn’t register for points on that event – I’d only done it twice before – but after the finish on Sunday I was thinking we should have taken the points!
“I didn’t mind. It was nice to be in the same town and celebrating a win, 21 years after my dad won the first ever WRC round on Sardinia.”
“This one really was perfect. The car was feeling really good after Sardinia and me and Elliott went to Greece with a really firm plan. We both knew how the Acropolis could bite, so we worked really hard on the recce and knew exactly where we wanted to push and where we wanted to back off.
“In the end we led from the first stage to the last. I never really felt I’d done this rally properly before this year, but we put that right this time. The team was amazing, the car was fantastic and Elliott was perfect, like always. I have to say, I was – and I am – really proud of this one. It was a good strategic won for us. And it gave us the championship lead for the first time since Safari.”
“What can we say about this one? I got the call from Kaj [Lindström, Toyota Gazoo Racing sporting director] on the Monday night after Greece. He asked me if I wanted to drive Estonia in a GR Yaris Rally1… yes!
“After that, everything went by in a bit of a blur. We went to Finland for the seat-fitting, to meet the team and to test the car. After that the recce and suddenly it was time to start the rally. From the start, I was driving my own event, just take it sensible and enjoy what was coming.
“Seventh on the superspecial on Thursday night was fine. I went to bed smiling, the chassis was fantastic and I couldn’t wait to get out there and drive again.
“Fastest on the first one on Friday morning was incredible. Incredible. And it just carried on from there. We kept on winning stages and building a lead – and, honestly, I didn’t feel like I was pushing crazy.
“Even when the rain came on Sunday, Elliott told me it was just a car and it was just rain, we had this. And we did. I will never forget this one.”
“It was actually quite tough to step back from the Rally1 to Rally2 car, especially in a rally which was similar in its high-speed nature. Friday morning was quite tough, but then we hit a rock which had been pulled into the road and was unavoidable in the rut. That threw us off the road and we retired for the day.
“We came back and won some stages, but after winning in Finland for the previous two years, this one was disappointing.”
“We dropped a minute with a slow puncture on the first morning, which wasn’t the ideal start. Elliott and I did the numbers and we knew what we had to do on every stage to make that time back. It wasn’t easy – Paraguay was a fast rally where everybody’s carrying very similar speed.
“We pushed like hell through Saturday and went to Sunday just six seconds off the lead. We really went at it again on that final day, pushing super-hard and we took the win. Again, I was really proud of this one. We’d battled back from a minute down in Italy and did it again in Paraguay.
“The other thing that was really cool about this one was the fans. This was the first time we’d been to this part of the world and the reception was just amazing. I loved this place!”
“We did it. Coming here, we knew there were lots of different ways this championship could be won, but we knew the only way to be sure was to win it for ourselves. That’s what we did.
“It wasn’t so easy with the tires and the weather changing all of the time. We had to be clever for the strategy, but we did it.”
*elected not to score WRC2 points
Words:David Evans
Tags: Oliver Solberg, WRC, WRC 2025, WRC2 2025
Publish Date September 15, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/09/WnL9geRm-DSC_3580-780x520.jpg September 15, 2025
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