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.
Quotes:
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal)
“This has been another amazing season for our team, with all five of our crews winning multiple rounds of the WRC, and a record-equalling manufacturers’ championship under our belt. It’s going to be very special to go to Sardinia with three of our crews fighting to become world champion for the first time. For our team, the most important thing is to provide them all with a strong and reliable car so that they can have an even fight. We know that Sardinia can be a rough rally with a lot of rocks, so it can be hard for the tyres and the drivers will need to calculate the risks they take. Elfyn has driven another great season as we have come to expect from him, and while he may have the most difficult position opening the road in Sardinia, he also has a lot of experience he can rely on in this situation. Sami has grown a lot during this year, and Oliver has bounced back strongly to stay in the fight, and it’s an exciting opportunity for both of them to challenge for a title for the first time. We’re looking forward to a fair fight and a fitting finale for our GR YARIS Rally1 car.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“Our approach for Sardinia doesn’t change just because it’s the last rally of the season: we have to go there and have the best rally that we can. We’ve worked hard to put ourselves in this position, holding on to the lead through a difficult run of gravel rallies. Sami and Oliver have been driving well, and with so many points still available, especially on Sunday, we know things will most likely remain open until the end. We just need to drive it like a normal rally and focus on doing the best job we can. Sardinia is usually not an easy rally to open the road on, and although we might be more likely to see some rain at this time of year, which could help reduce the cleaning effect for us, we have to prepare for a demanding event like usual.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 1)
“Sardinia is a rally that I have always enjoyed going to during my career. While the island itself is beautiful, the rally is really demanding and it took me a few years to master it, but it was very satisfying to win there again last year after a close fight right until the end. I also remember driving there in October a couple of times before, and it can still be really challenging at this time of year, especially with weather that can change very quickly when you’re on an island. Now that the team has secured another manufacturers’ title, and that we officially no longer have a chance in the drivers’ championship, our target will be to enjoy driving this great car one last time and, of course, try to achieve one more victory to end the season.”
Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
“The championship has looked like a long shot for us at times this year but we never gave up. It was great to get back into the fight with our result in Chile and go into this last rally with a shot at the title. It’s a big gap to Elfyn to try to close in one rally, but we will give it everything of course, and in a rally like Sardinia, anything can still happen. The stages are challenging, with fast sections where you need good commitment, as well as more technical parts where you have to be more patient. I don’t have so much experience there, especially in the top category, but we had a good run to win the Rally2 class last year and we just have to aim for the top step once more and see what happens.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“I’m looking forward to Sardinia. The rally is really demanding but it’s one that I always enjoy going to with a nice atmosphere around it, and it will be interesting to drive there this time as the final round of the season. We’ve had some really good moments this year, as well as some tougher ones more recently, but the team is really supporting me a lot and now I’m just focused on coming back stronger and having a positive end to the season – and enjoying the last event with this Rally1 car. Our road position, being sixth on the road, should be better for us – if it doesn’t rain – and hopefully it can be a good opportunity for us.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“It’s really nice to be in the fight for the championship with only one rally to go, and I’m looking forward to it. I just need to do the best that I can, like in every single rally, so nothing really changes on my side. The gaps closed up between the top three in Chile but Elfyn still has the advantage in the points; anything is still possible and we’ll focus on doing what we can. Sardinia is a rally that I normally like a lot. The stages are quite twisty and most of them are pretty narrow, but I’ve been able to do quite well there in the past. Now we’re going at a different time of year but I don’t expect it to affect the nature of the rally too much, even if the temperatures may not be quite as high as usual.”
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