Toyota’s GR Yaris Rally1 finished its last season the way it ran most of it: with a win. Oliver Solberg took Rally Italia Sardegna on October 4, 2026, giving the car 12 victories from 13 rounds. On the same day, his teammate Elfyn Evans clinched his first World Rally Championship title.
The two stories are tied together. Evans finished only fifth in Sardinia, yet he still won the drivers’ title by five points. Meanwhile, Toyota had already sealed the manufacturers’ crown at the round before.
Toyota published the results as a provisional classification on Sunday afternoon. The FIA, the sport’s governing body, has confirmed Evans and co-driver Scott Martin as champions.
A record-equalling season for the GR Yaris Rally1
According to Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Sardinia release, the win was the GR Yaris Rally1’s 12th from 13 rallies this season. Toyota says that equals the record for wins in a single season. It was also the car’s 48th WRC win overall, which extends its own record.
The timing matters, too. Toyota calls 2026 the car’s final season before new technical regulations arrive in 2027. In fact, Toyota’s UK press office describes Sardinia as the “fifth and final season of the current homologation cycle,” and says the car has won championships throughout the five seasons since 2022.
So the car bowed out with a near-perfect year. Only one round of 13 went to another make.
How the Sardinia finale played out
Evans arrived with a 21-point lead over Solberg and a 17-point margin over Sami Pajari, RACER reports. By the final leg, however, that lead had shrunk to six points.
Solberg and Elliott Edmondson won the rally by 57.6 seconds from Sébastien Ogier and Vincent Landais. Pajari and Marko Salminen finished third, 1 minute 37.4 seconds back. As a result, Toyota filled the whole podium with GR Yaris Rally1 cars.
Evans and Martin, by contrast, finished fifth, 4 minutes 48.1 seconds behind the winners. That was enough. Solberg slid wide on a fast corner near the end of the final stage, and Toyota says he finished that Power Stage 8.9 seconds behind Evans’s time.
Those few seconds decided the championship. Instead of a title for Solberg, the points went Evans’s way.
The final points
Toyota’s release and RACER give the same final drivers’ table:
- Elfyn Evans, 243 points
- Oliver Solberg, 238 points
- Sami Pajari, 237 points
- Sébastien Ogier, 189 points
- Adrien Fourmaux, 183 points
- Takamoto Katsuta, 175 points
Five Toyota drivers sit in that top six; Fourmaux drives for Hyundai. Similarly, the manufacturers’ table was one-sided. Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team finished on 662 points to Hyundai’s 440, according to both sources.
A first title for Evans after years as runner-up
Evans and Martin had finished as championship runners-up in five of the last six years, Toyota’s UK press office notes. RACER adds that one more second place would have made Evans a record six-time runner-up.
Instead, he gives Wales its first WRC drivers’ title. RACER also notes he is the first British driver to win the title since Richard Burns in 2001. Before Burns, Colin McRae won it in 1995.
“It’s still not really sinking in yet that we’ve managed to get the championship across the line,” Evans said in Toyota’s release.
His teammates were gracious about it. Ogier said of Evans and Martin that “nobody deserves it more than them.” Team principal Jari-Matti Latvala, for his part, said: “All year we have tried to give all of our drivers an even chance to win.” With three Toyota crews in the title fight until the last stage, that approach went right to the wire.
The FIA’s event review states that Evans and Martin “were crowned FIA World Rally Champions for the first time” after the season finale, held October 1 to 4.
What else Toyota’s GR Yaris Rally1 crews achieved
Ogier’s second place was his 121st WRC podium, a record, and it came on his record 214th start, Toyota says. Katsuta finished sixth in Sardinia. During the season, Toyota notes, he also became the first Japanese driver to lead the championship.
Toyota also counts this as the seventh time in eight years that one of its crews has won the drivers’ title. Likewise, it is the fifth time in six years the team has won all three world titles.
For the car itself, the record now reads 48 WRC wins, with 12 of them in 2026. New technical rules arrive in 2027, so the GR Yaris Rally1 ends its five-season run as the reigning champion’s car.
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This article was created with the help of AI and was reviewed and edited by Fast Lane Only editors before publication.
