TGR-WRT trio set for Sardinian title showdown

2026.09.25 (Fri)

Three TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team drivers will go head-to-head to be crowned FIA World Rally Champion for the first time when Rally Italia Sardegna hosts the 13th and final round of the 2026 season on October 1-4.

The intense Italian island event will decide the winners of the drivers’ and co-drivers’ titles after the FIA and WRC Promoter confirmed that Rally Saudi Arabia, scheduled for November, will not form part of the 2026 WRC season.

Sardinia will therefore also host the end of an era and the farewell WRC event for the highly successful GR YARIS Rally1 car before new technical regulations are introduced for 2027. Across five seasons, the GR YARIS Rally1 has established itself as one of the most successful cars in WRC history with 47 victories – more than any other model under any previous set of regulations.

TGR-WRT will arrive in Sardinia having already secured a record-equalling sixth successive manufacturers’ title on the last round in Chile, and knowing that one of its crews will win the drivers’ and co-drivers’ crowns for the seventh time in eight years.

With 35 points available from the final round, Elfyn Evans leads the drivers’ standings by 17 points over Sami Pajari and 21 over Oliver Solberg, with one of these three drivers now guaranteed to achieve the dream of becoming world champion.

Welsh driver Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin will look to crown another strong and consistent campaign, in which they have taken impressive victories in Sweden and Japan and led the championship since round five in the Canary Islands in April, continuing to score highly while opening the road on mostly loose gravel rallies.

While a title for Evans would be the culmination of seven seasons spent fighting for victories and championship honours with TGR-WRT, his two young challengers have the opportunity to crown breakthrough seasons of their own.

Finnish driver Pajari, 24, has shone in his second full season driving Rally1 machinery and surged firmly into championship contention along with co-driver Marko Salminen when the pair achieved their first three WRC victories back-to-back in Estonia, Finland and Paraguay – something nobody had ever done before.

Swedish driver Solberg, who turned 25 on September 23, started his first full season with TGR-WRT with a victory on the legendary Rallye Monte-Carlo in January, before he and co-driver Elliott Edmondson boosted their title hopes with a second win in Chile earlier this month.

While nine-time world champion Sébastien Ogier, fourth in the standings, can no longer claim a record 10th title this year, he will set a new benchmark for the number of WRC starts in Sardinia when he begins his 214th event – surpassing the tally reached by Team Principal, Jari-Matti Latvala, on his one-off appearance at Rally Finland earlier this year. Ogier is the most successful driver in the history of the Sardinian event, claiming his fifth win there in 2025 alongside co-driver Vincent Landais.

Takamoto Katsuta is another driver to have achieved a breakout year with his first two WRC victories in Kenya and Croatia, in the process becoming the first Japanese driver to lead the drivers’ standings. He is set to reunite in Sardinia with regular co-driver Aaron Johnston, who missed Chile while recovering from a collarbone injury.

In WRC2, GR Yaris Rally2 drivers Roope Korhonen and Teemu Suninen are among those competing in Sardinia with a chance to finish as championship runner-up. Joining them in the class are Gus Greensmith, Kajetan Kajetanowicz, Fabio Schwarz and Johannes Keferböck, while Italian driver Matteo Fontana, the 2025 champion and 2026 champion-elect in the WRC3 category, makes his WRC2 debut. Luis Arceluz and Martin Grigg also enter the rally in GR Yaris Rally2 cars.

TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto will not take part in Sardinia, a decision taken jointly to provide him with the best opportunity to reset and focus on his continued development. Yamamoto has shown progress with his pace and performances this season, securing a maiden WRC2 podium at Rally Japan, and the Program continues to support him in his training and preparation to return stronger in the future.

Usually run in June, Rally Italia Sardegna moves to an October date for the first time since 2020. Even if temperatures may not be quite as high as in summer, they could still combine with the rocky and abrasive base – which gets exposed as each passing car sweeps away the sandy surface – to test tyres and cars. At the same time, the change in season could increase the chances of changeable weather conditions blowing in off the Mediterranean Sea.

For this year the rally’s base alternates once more from Olbia to the historic city of Alghero on the northwest coast, and the event begins with an opening super special stage at the nearby Ittiri rallycross circuit on Thursday evening. Friday features two loops of three stages on familiar roads to the north-east, separated by mid-day service. Saturday has a similar format in a similar area but includes a completely new stage to round out each loop: Solorche. Sunday consists of two returning stages in the north-west run twice, with a final tyre-fitting zone before the second pass of Sassari-Argentiera serves as the season-ending Power Stage.