Oct 3 (Reuters) - Toyota's Oliver Solberg ⁠seized the lead in the world rally championship finale in Sardinia ⁠on Saturday but teammate Elfyn Evans remained on course for his ‌first title.

Hyundai's overnight leader Thierry Neuville crashed out on stage 11, ending a tight battle withSolberg and sending the Swede well clear at the top of the leaderboard as the three-way title ​battle looked wide open with four stages still ⁠to come on Sunday.

Evans started the ⁠rally 17 points clear of Finland's Sami Pajari, also in a Toyota, and ⁠21 ‌clear of Solberg.

As things stood on Saturday evening, Welshman Evans remained on course for the title with his lead reduced to a provisional ⁠six points but plenty of potential pitfalls ahead.

Solberg led ​by 33.6 seconds from ‌teammate and reigning nine-time world champion Sebastien Ogier, with Pajari third and ⁠Evans fifth.

Evans ​had been fourth going into the day's closing stage but lost the place to Hyundai's Adrien Fourmaux, who won the stage. The Frenchman is 52.1 seconds behind Pajari.

"Of course ⁠now we have to try and change the ​strategy a bit. Let's see if it is enough," said Evans, who has finished overall runner-up five times in the last six seasons and would be Britain's ⁠third rally world champion if he can prevail on Sunday.

"I don't think it will be straightforward tomorrow. Today has been a tough day to try and hang in there with Oliver going so fast at the front. We have a ​long way to go. We have a tough ⁠day tomorrow. It is still wide open.”

The Alghero-based Italian round is the 13th and ​final rally of the season after the Saudi ‌Arabia finale was cancelled due to conflict ​in the region.

Toyota have already won the manufacturers' title for the sixth year in a row.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; editing by Clare Fallon)