Croatia Rally 2026, SS4: Pajari takes advantage of Solberg and Evans’ ‘own goals’

There were certainly no shortages of surprises in the first four stages of the Croatia Rally, which returned to the calendar after last year’s absence. Leading the overall standings was the Finnish Sami Pajari, provisional leader despite a puncture suffered during the second stage. Unexpected events, however, occurred with the retirements of Oliver Solberg and Elfyn Evans, who paid dearly for two mistakes made during the morning.

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SS1-SS4: surprises right away

All the good premises were there for Oliver Solberg on the eve of the Croatian rally, as demonstrated by the best time set in Thursday’s Shakedown. Instead, in SS1 on the border with Slovenia, the Toyota driver was immediately the protagonist of a mistake that forced him to retire: 4 km after the start, the Swede spun out following contact with an embankment, ending off course. Despite the spectators’ attempt to get the Yaris Rally1 back on the road, Solberg had to throw in the towel, in a stage dominated by Elfyn Evans, who was 8 full seconds ahead of Sami Pajari.

The Welshman further increased his gap in the next stage, due to the bad luck that struck Pajari himself, Armstrong (3rd at the green light) and Fourmaux, all betrayed by a puncture. While the Finn still managed to maintain second overall due to a rather slow puncture, Neuville took advantage of what happened to the other two drivers, climbing to third place. The real twist, however, occurred during the third stage: the points leader, Elfyn Evans, made a huge mistake by running wide after misjudging a right-hand corner. Again, there were no consequences for the crew despite the heavy impact, but the retirement inevitably affected the standings. While Neuville won the stage by only 0.1 seconds over Armstrong, Pajari became the new overall leader, just ahead of Neuville and Katsuta.

Read more Rally di Croazia 2026, SS12: Solberg flies, but Pajari remains leader

At the end of the morning, the Finn defended his position well by winning SS4, this time with a change in the virtual podium positions thanks to Katsuta’s best performance, allowing the Japanese driver to overtake Neuville into 2nd place. The gap from Pajari, awaiting the afternoon stages, is 8 seconds.

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Rally di Croazia 2026, standings after SS4 (Top-10)