Ogier takes first WRC win of year as McErlean leaves Canaries 'really satisfied'

For the Irish and M-Sport Ford crew of Kilrea's Josh McErlean and Killeagh's Eoin Treacy, it was eighth overall which represented their best result of the season.

Sun, 26 Apr, 2026 - 16:24

Martin Walsh

Nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Ogier (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) and co-driver Vincent Landais took their first WRC victory of the year when they finished Rally Islas Canarias 19.9s ahead of the British crew of Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin with Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen completing an all-Toyota podium of the fifth round of the series.

For the Irish and M-Sport Ford crew of Kilrea's Josh McErlean and Killeagh's Eoin Treacy, it was eighth overall which represented their best result of the season.

"Really satisfied," McErlean said afterwards. "I enjoyed it a lot, we really needed a clean result. Thanks to the team, they stuck by us. It's a good job."

In contrast, their teammates Jon Armstrong/Shane Byrne finished 11th after two incidents over the weekend, the second, a time-consuming off on Saturday's penultimate stage.

Ogier began Saturday's six stages with a lead of 8.9s but throughout the day his chief rival and team mate Oliver Solberg chipped away at reducing the deficit and, with stage wins on both passes of the 28.9km Moya-Gáldar stage - the longest of the entire rally, the Swede was only 3.9s shy of the nine-time champion who relished the battle.

Solberg had a slight brush with the Armco barrier on the second run of Moya-Galdar where he edged out Ogier by 0.1s. Such were the tight margins. Despite the intense pace and the changing weather conditions, there were no major retirements. The constant was Toyota's lock-out of the top five places. Evans was quickest on the day's opening pair of stages, leapfrogging Pajari for third spot, moving closer to the leading pair with another stage win on the repeat of Maspalomas.

"Tomorrow, we have some new stages which are going to be fun to drive. That’s the reason we are here," leader Ogier said.
"If you don’t enjoy this kind of fight, then better stay home.”

Takamoto Katsuta and his Fintona co-driver Aaron Johnston in fifth struggled from a lack of confidence. French driver Adrien Fourmaux led Hyundai's challenge after he moved ahead of Dani Sordo in the morning stages as Thierry Neuville (eighth) endured another tough day.

McErlean was the epitome of consistency and again ended the day in ninth and top M-Sport Ford driver. His teammate Jon Armstrong lost substantial time when he slid his Puma Rally1 off the road some two kilometres from the end of the day's final stage where the impact damaged the front and rear of his car. He was helped back on the road by spectators. A disappointed Armstrong, who had intercom issues earlier in the day, said: "I just can't trust what I'm doing, I had a pretty good stage and this one place I was braking quite early and when I tried to adjust my line, the front just gave up and went straight. At least we were able to get out, but it doesn't matter so much now."

On Sunday's final leg the battle between Ogier and Solberg raged, the Swede reducing the margin to just 2.2s after the morning two stages. However the duel ended on the penultimate stage when Solberg hit a barrier. Although he and co-driver Elliott Edmondson were both unhurt, their Toyota was too badly damaged to continue in the event. It was cruel on the Swede, a fact endorsed by Ogier, who was enjoying the battle and who went on to take victory.

“I was too optimistic with this right-hander that had a jump and we went into the Armco,” Solberg explained.

Second-placed Evans won both the Super Sunday classification and took an additional five points for his Power Stage victory, all of which promoted him into the lead of the series - two points ahead of Katsuta as Pajari, with yet another podium finish, slotting into third in the championship.

For McErlean and Treacy, it was one of their best performances of the season and a much-needed result.

"Obviously it's a long weekend to chase a setup. We're satisfied how we've done this weekend because we were far off Jon (Armstrong) in Croatia and now we can race him. It's been a step forward on the driving side," Armstrong said. "We've taken a long time going with a different tyre on this type of tarmac. We've progressed, but still need to understand where we can improve. It's not been a great rally, but sometimes you have worse ones and then good ones."