WRC 2026 result after Round 7: Rally Japan

Toyota Gazoo Racing continued its 2026 FIA World Rally Championship campaign with an epic 1-2-3-4 finish on home roads in Japan, with Welshman Elfyn Evans seizing the overall win for the third time in his career. How did this WRC 2026 result on Rally Japan play out? Read on as we review each day’s activities.

WRC 2026: Rally Japan

Toyota returned to Japan looking to consolidate what has already been a highly successful first half of the WRC 2026 campaign. With five wins from the opening six rallies, Toyota was flying high at the top of the manufacturers’ championship and all five drivers were inside the top six of the drivers’ championship.

Since returning to the calendar in 2022, Rally Japan has been held on narrow and twisting asphalt roads in the forest-covered mountains around the city of Nagoya. The move from its normal November slot to late May brought higher temperatures and increased demands on the cars, but the location is always prone to rain regardless of the time of year.

Day 1

After a ceremonial start outside the 17th Century castle in Nagoya the night before, day one’s competition action began with two loops of stages in the forest-covered mountains to the east of Toyota City. Although it had been raining overnight and the stages were wet under the shade of the trees, it didn’t take long for the Toyota crews to exert their dominance.

Oliver Solberg was the first to claim the early lead, followed by team-mates Sami Pajari and Sébastien Ogier in stages two and three respectively. Elfyn Evans then went fastest by a significant 7.5 seconds through the infamous, limited-visibility test through Isegami’s Tunnel (below), which was enough to catapault him into the lead. The Welshman was also fastest in the following test to conclude the morning with an advantage of 17.7 seconds over second-placed Solberg.

Solberg was fastest again in the first test of the afternoon re-run, while Evans proved untouchable once more through the Tunnel and ended the day with a lead of 15.7 seconds. Three of his remaining four team-mates followed immediately behind to fill positions two, three and four.

WRC 2026 result: Day 2

The longest day of the rally featured eight stages – three tests either side of the mid-day tyre-fitting zone, followed by two passes of a new super special stage – which added up to almost 75 competitive miles. Temperatures in excess of 30°C created something of a pressure cooker for the cars and crews alike.

Solberg proved faster than Evans in two of the morning’s stages and reduced his deficit from 15.7 to 10.6 seconds. However, Solberg hit trouble in the first stage of the afternoon when he was a little too late to brake and slid wide into a telegraph pole. This damaged his car’s offside rear suspension, which prevented him from continuing. With Solberg only able to return the following day, Evans (below) took another stage win and extended his advantage over second-placed Ogier.

Meanwhile, Pajari moved up into third following three stage wins in the afternoon, including both passes of the super special. Takamoto Katsuta enjoyed a stronger day and gained two positions on the leaderboard, creating another all-Toyota lockout of the top four places.

Day 3

The previous day’s top four positions of Evans, Ogier, Pajari and Katsuta remained solid all the way through the final day’s action, each crew pursuing the other to conclude well ahead of the next nearest manufacturer. In this respect, Toyota’s victory in Rally Japan represented our fourth consecutive win of this event. It was Evans’s third win in Japan, his 13th WRC career victory and 50th podium finish.

A similar feat was achieved in this event by the conquering GR Yaris Rally1, which amassed an astounding 50 consecutive stage wins across its last three WRC rallies on asphalt. It also meant that Toyota increased its manufacturers’ championship lead to 127 points. Sadly, however, this was the final time the current car competed on Japanese territory before new regulations come into force next year.

WRC 2026 result in Round 7: Rally Japan

WRC 2026 championship: drivers and co-drivers

WRC 2026 championship: manufacturers

WRC 2026: Where next?

Round seven sees the WRC take on Rally Japan, which has been moved forwards from its usual slot in November. Seen as one of two ‘home’ events for the Toyota Gazoo Racing rally team, it takes place on 28-31 May and runs on the twisting asphalt roads in the mountains of the Aichi and Gifu prefectures.

Learn more: How did last year’s WRC end for Toyota?