A power ranking is not the championship standings. The standings reward season-long consistency — every point banked since January counts equally. A power ranking asks a different, more immediate question: right now, today, who is the most dangerous driver in the World Rally Championship? It weighs recent results far more heavily than early-season ones, factors in momentum and confidence, and tries to capture who’s genuinely on top of their game heading into the decisive final rounds.

That’s why our number one here is not the championship leader. It’s the driver who has just won back-to-back… well, we’ll get to that. First, the facts everyone agrees on — the actual championship standings after Rally Chile — so you can see exactly where our form-based ranking agrees with the points, and where it sharply diverges.

Rally Chile blew the title race wide open. Championship leader Elfyn Evans was running a comfortable second before a penultimate-stage puncture cost him over two minutes and dropped him to fifth, trimming his advantage. Oliver Solberg won the rally from Sébastien Ogier and Adrien Fourmaux, and in doing so hauled himself right into title contention. Here’s where it officially stands.

Note the shape of it: four of the top four drivers are Toyota team-mates, separated by just 21 points. Hyundai’s challenge, led by Fourmaux with Neuville enduring a wretched season down in seventh, has faded to a supporting role. For the full account of how Chile unfolded, see our Rally Chile 2026 results report.

Here it is — our ranking of the WRC field on current form. The “trend” arrow shows momentum since the last few rounds, and the verdict sums up where each driver stands today. Remember: this is form, not points, so the order deliberately differs from the standings above.

The headline is the gap between the standings and the form guide. Evans leads the championship but sits second on form; Solberg is only third in points yet tops our rankings outright; and Pajari, currently the championship runner-up, ranks fourth because his rise has been built on steady accumulation rather than the spectacular pace of those above him. That tension is exactly what makes the run-in so hard to predict.

1. Oliver Solberg — the man nobody wants to see in their mirrors

Nobody in the WRC is driving better right now. Solberg opened 2026 by winning the Monte Carlo Rally, waited eleven rounds, and then delivered an emphatic, controlled victory at Rally Chile — leading all but one stage, managing brutal tyre wear and abrasive gravel, and winning the Power Stage on top for maximum points. It was the third win of his career and, at 24, the moment he announced himself as a genuine title threat rather than a talented junior. He’s third in the standings, 21 points back, but no driver has more momentum. On pure current form, he is our clear number one.

2. Elfyn Evans — the leader who deserves better luck

Evans remains the championship leader, and that consistency is precisely why the title is still his to lose. His Rally Chile was a study in bad fortune, not bad driving: running a controlled second and set to extend his advantage, he was undone by a penultimate-stage puncture that cost more than two minutes and dropped him to fifth. He still salvaged Power Stage points. The pace was never in question — and over a full season, that reliability has kept him ahead of the entire field. He ranks second only because the man above him is on an irresistible run.

3. Sébastien Ogier — the ageless threat

You can never rule out a nine-time world champion, and Ogier proved it again with a composed second place in Chile behind only Solberg. Whether running a full or partial campaign, Ogier remains one of the fastest and smartest drivers on any given weekend, and his experience on the high-pressure closing rounds is unmatched. He tops the “who wins a one-off shootout” conversation. If the title fight comes down to a single decisive rally, he is the wildcard nobody can afford to ignore.

4. Sami Pajari — the quiet climber

The Finn’s season has been the opposite of Solberg’s — no fireworks, just relentless accumulation. He capitalised on Evans’ Chile misfortune to move up, cutting the championship leader’s advantage to 17 points and installing himself as the official runner-up. He ranks fourth on form because his rise has been built on consistency rather than the outright pace of the three above him, but make no mistake: he is second in the standings for a reason, and Toyota clearly sees him as a future number one.

5. Adrien Fourmaux — Hyundai’s lone standard-bearer

In a season where Hyundai has largely been outgunned by Toyota’s armada, Fourmaux has been the exception — the one driver keeping the Korean marque in podium contention. His third place in Chile, behind two Toyotas, was a lonely but impressive result, and he sits as the lead Hyundai driver in the standings, comfortably clear of a struggling Neuville. He can’t realistically win the title, but he is unquestionably driving the best of anyone outside the Toyota camp.

Two other trajectories are worth watching. Sami Pajari continues to quietly rise — the puncture that hurt Evans lifted Pajari to second, and his stock has never been higher. Conversely, Esapekka Lappi is trending the wrong way: he struggled throughout Chile, Hyundai publicly had to defend selecting him, and there’s a real sense it could be among his final WRC outings. The chaotic Rally Chile — which hospitalised five crews across a brutal Friday — was the backdrop to several of these swings.

With two rounds remaining, the maths is deliciously open. Evans leads, but by only 17 points from Pajari and 21 from the surging Solberg, with Ogier still lurking. A WRC weekend can swing that much in a single day — as Chile just proved — and every one of the top four is a Toyota team-mate, meaning the manufacturer will celebrate regardless of which driver takes the crown.

The intrigue is heightened by the in-house nature of it. Toyota has already secured the manufacturers’ title, which frees the team from having to manage its drivers for points — in theory, all four can be let off the leash to fight it out. Whether the team orders that or lets them race is one of the great sub-plots of the finale. For the strategic factors that will decide these final gravel rounds, our guide to WRC tyre, track and tactics strategy breaks down exactly what wins rallies at this level.