Sami Pajari and co-driver Marco Salminen won Rally del Paraguay on August 30, completing the 11th round of the 2026 World Rally Championship in 3:13:28.5. Their Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 finished 25.8 seconds ahead of Hayden Paddon's Hyundai i20 N Rally1, with Adrien Fourmaux making it two Hyundais on the podium at 40.0 seconds back.
For Toyota the day cut both ways. Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin took fourth at 45.1 seconds and Oliver Solberg fifth — but Takamoto Katsuta's rally ended in a crash on SS21. For Katsuta, the accident turned a difficult weekend into a costly retirement, with no points to show for it.
The championship tightens at the top
Pajari's win closes the title fight up: Evans still leads the drivers' championship with 216 points, 20 ahead of Pajari, with three rounds remaining. In the manufacturers' standings, Toyota Gazoo Racing holds a commanding 173-point lead.
The result sets up a Toyota-versus-Toyota fight at the front of the drivers' table, with Pajari closing on Evans — both in GR Yaris Rally1 machinery — and the season's endgame now running through South America.
Why this matters beyond the stage times
The road-going GR Yaris was originally developed with Toyota's rally ambitions in mind, although today's Rally1 car is a purpose-built competition machine under a different set of regulations. The connection now runs through engineering culture rather than shared parts — the same company that races these stages is the one running the Nürburgring-spec GR Yaris through its motorsport wind tunnel.
Next is Rally Chile Biobío on September 10–13, the second leg of the championship's South American double-header — and the next test of whether Pajari can keep the pressure on fellow Toyota driver Evans.