TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team travels to Rally del Paraguay on 27–30 August for round 11 of the 2026 World Rally Championship. The team leads the manufacturers’ standings by 174 points and can seal a sixth consecutive title in Encarnación if it extends that gap by at least six more points. Toyota drivers also fill all five top places in the drivers’ championship, led by Elfyn Evans.
The World Rally Championship returns to South America this month, and Toyota arrives in Paraguay with the manufacturers’ crown almost within reach. Round 11 of the 2026 season runs from 27 to 30 August and is the first of two back-to-back gravel events on the continent, with Rally Chile following just two weeks later.
A title that could be settled early
Back-to-back strong results on the fast stages of Estonia and Finland pushed TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team’s advantage in the manufacturers’ championship out to 174 points. Adding six more points to that margin in Paraguay would be enough to secure a sixth successive manufacturers’ title with rounds still to spare.
The team’s drivers occupy all five leading positions in the drivers’ standings. Elfyn Evans heads the table with a 30-point cushion, and his closest rival is now team-mate Sami Pajari, who took his first two WRC wins in succession in Estonia and Finland. Takamoto Katsuta sits 41 points off the lead and Oliver Solberg 45 points back.
Sébastien Ogier, the nine-time and reigning world champion, is 62 points adrift after an accident in Finland but returns alongside regular co-driver Vincent Landais. The pairing won Paraguay’s first-ever WRC round in 2025.
Red clay, big bumps and unpredictable grip
Paraguay joined the calendar only last year, and the stages proved trickier than their layout suggested. The roads are fast, but the red clay surface polishes up and delivers changeable grip, while heavy bumps and sharp rocks put cars and tyres under pressure. Rain can strip away what little traction remains.
“On paper the stages looked quite straightforward with many long straights and junctions, but the rally was made far more difficult by the polished clay surface and the changing grip levels,” Evans said. “Then, when it rained on the final morning, there was almost no grip available at all.”
Deputy Team Principal Juha Kankkunen said the team is not treating the title as a formality. “In Paraguay we will have our first opportunity to secure the manufacturers’ title, but we are not expecting that to be easy,” he said, adding that the squad found out last year how challenging the roads and conditions can be.
The route
The event is based in Encarnación, on the banks of the Paraná river at the border with Argentina. A ceremonial start on Thursday evening opens proceedings, before Friday delivers the longest day of the rally: two loops of four stages covering 153.78 competitive kilometres (95.55 miles). Saturday brings two more loops of four tests plus a new super special stage in Encarnación, and five stages close out the rally on Sunday.
Toyota machinery dominates the entry list
The GR Yaris Rally2 is the most common car in the Paraguay field, with 12 entered. TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto continues his WRC2 season here in his first rally on South American soil, joined by WRC2 regulars Alejandro Cachón and Gus Greensmith. Nine Paraguayan drivers are entered in the car — Diego Domínguez, Andrea Lafarja, Alejandro Galanti, Gustavo Saba, Fabrizio Galanti, Augusto Bestard, Franco Pappalardo and Miguel María García — while Bolivian driver Marco Bulacia also returns to WRC action on his home continent.
What it means
A sixth consecutive manufacturers’ title would underline how thoroughly Toyota has controlled the current era of the WRC, but the internal fight is the more open story. With five drivers separated by 62 points and two South American gravel rounds ahead, the drivers’ championship remains genuinely live — and, as last year showed, a shower of rain in Encarnación can rearrange the order in a single morning.
Rally del Paraguay runs from 27 to 30 August 2026.
Source: newsroom.toyota.eu