TGR-WRT target home win in Japan
Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team (TGR-WRT) have their sights set on another home victory at Rally Japan, the seventh round of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship, taking place this week (28-31 May).
The team return to Japan looking to conclude what has so far been a successful first half of the WRC campaign, including five wins from the opening six rallies. They lead the manufacturers’ championship by 93 points and have all five of their drivers inside the top six of the drivers’ championship standings.
Elfyn Evans is leading the championship. The Welsh driver won Rally Japan for the team in 2023 and 2024 and he holds has a 12-point advantage over his nearest competitor, his Japanese team-mate Takamoto Katsuta.
Katsuta is set to receive a hero’s welcome as he returns to home roads after achieving his first two WRC victories earlier this season in Kenya and Croatia. He is aiming to add to the Rally Japan podium he achieved in 2022.
Oliver Solberg is third in the championship, 31 points from the lead, having started this year with a famous Rallye Monte-Carlo victory. He starts Rally Japan in Rally1 machinery for the first time, having won his class with the GR Yaris Rally2 car in 2025. Sami Pajari scored his maiden WRC podium in Japan last November and has since achieved four more. He sits fifth in the standings. Reigning and nine-time world champion Sébastien Ogier rounds out the top six having taken victory at Rally Islas Canarias in one of four starts so far this year.
TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto will be another competing on home roads, driving one of seven GR Yaris Rally2 cars entered in the WRC2 class. Spaniard Alejandro Cachón returns to Rally Japan after winning the category in 2025 and is joined by fellow MSi Racing Team drivers Diego Domínguez and Andrea Lafarja of Paraguay. Hiroki Arai, Norihiko Katsuta and Fumio Nutahara, frontrunners in the Japanese Rally Championship, also compete in their home event.
Since it returned to the WRC calendar in 2022, Rally Japan has been held mostly on narrow and twisting asphalt roads in the forest-covered mountains of the Aichi and Gifu prefectures, around the city of Nagoya. The move from November to late May should bring higher temperatures, but the chance for rain – which has added to the challenge in previous editions – remains.
While the Toyota Stadium continues to host the service park, the rally will this year visit Nagoya itself for the first time with a ceremonial start at the city’s historic castle on Thursday evening, following a morning shakedown at Kuragaike Park.
Friday is focused on a loop of three stages run twice in the mountains east of Toyota City, starting with the new Asuke test and including the Isegami’s Tunnel. Saturday is the longest day of the rally, taking crews north-east for a trio of stages repeated in the reverse order after a tyre-fitting zone at Enakyo Park. Two passes of a new super special stage at Fujioka round out the day. Sunday once more takes place mainly to the south-east, with twin passes of the familiar Nukata and Lake Mikawako tests separated by two runs around a Kuragaike super special.
Team quotes
Jari-Matti Latvala (Team Principal): “We’re looking forward to returning to Rally Japan in what has been a very strong season so far for our team. We were maybe a bit unlucky on the last rally in Portugal, but it’s difficult in any sport to be invincible, and we like to see such strong competition because it makes the victories feel even better. It will be interesting to see Rally Japan running earlier in the year than usual, as the temperatures will be higher and this could affect the tyre behaviour and the grip levels for the drivers. We’ve seen the rally growing in popularity every year and I’m sure we will see even more support this year after Takamoto’s wins earlier this season. This will make it easier for him to go to his home rally and challenge for the victory that he really wants. Of course, Taka’s team-mates have also all been strong on asphalt recently, and they too will want to win.”
Elfyn Evans (driver car 33): “Rally Japan is always a special occasion. We get a very warm welcome from everyone in Japan and there’s a nice feel to the rally week and a real drive in our team to do well on Toyota’s home event. The roads are very narrow and technical, requiring precision and confidence with the pacenotes and the car. The different date this year should bring hotter temperatures, which will increase the demands on everything in the car. It’s been a good event for us in the past, but the clock always starts at zero for everyone and we’ll have to be at our best to try and score as many points as we can.”
Sébastien Ogier (driver car 1): “Going to Rally Japan is a highlight in our season and it’s been great to see the support and the interest in rallying there growing every year. At the same time, the expectations are high, but we have been performing well recently, especially on asphalt, so I believe we have good hopes for this event and can target the top places again. This year, with the new date, we can probably expect higher temperatures and maybe fewer leaves on the road, but I’m sure the overall character will remain the same: smooth and mostly clean but also very technical and twisty, where you need to have a good flow to make a good time.”
Oliver Solberg (driver car 99): “I’m excited for Rally Japan and to compete there in a Toyota Rally1 car for the first time. I’ve been coming to Japan since I was very young and I love everything about the country. Last year was my first time competing in the rally and the atmosphere was amazing, so I’m sure the experience will be even more incredible this time. It was good to gain that knowledge of the roads, but the speeds will be even higher in the Rally1 car, so there will be some learning to do like on most rallies this year. We’ve had great feeling and pace on asphalt so far, and hopefully we can use that to take a good solid result.”
Takamoto Katsuta (driver car 18): “Rally Japan is of course a very important rally for me and for our team. I hope to see even more people interested in the rally and following us on the stages. It will be exciting to see how the conditions will change now that the rally is taking place in a different season. It will be much warmer than usual and with fewer leaves and better grip, the conditions could be quite nice. Still, there’s a chance for wet weather if the rainy season that we usually have in June arrives early. Of course, to win my home rally would be very nice but we are competing against many great drivers, including my team-mates. I will just focus on trying my best and enjoying the amazing feeling of driving our Rally1 car on Japanese roads.”
Sami Pajari (driver car 5): “I’m looking forward to being back in Japan. It’s always a cool place to visit and I’ve some very good memories from the rally: it’s where we took our first podium finish last year, and where I won the WRC2 title the year before. It’s a special feeling to be a Toyota driver there, and every year the number of fans seems to be growing. We will be there at a different time of year, but I don’t think the challenge will be any less than before. Having been on the podium in the last two asphalt rallies, as well as in Japan last year, that’s the minimum we will try to aim for. We’ll do our best to achieve a good result.”
ENDS
