Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team (TGR-WRT) turn their attention to asphalt on the Croatia Rally this week (9-12 April) the fourth round of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship.
Croatia is the start of a busy period for teams with three championship rounds on asphalt across the next two months. Croatia’s demanding roads will be fully two weeks later by those of Rally Islas Canarias. After a return to gravel in Portugal another fortnight later, the action returns to asphalt for Rally Japan at the end of May.
The Croatia rally, returning to the WRC calendar after a year out, is known for its challenging mix of asphalt surfaces and constantly changing grip levels on stages that combine twisting and technical roads with fast and flowing sections including jumps and crests.
For this year, the rally’s base moves around 95 miles south-west from the capital Zagreb to the coastal city of Rijeka, with the service park set up at the Grobnik racing circuit. This move brings significant changes to the route: all but three of the stages are new to the WRC, introducing unfamiliar terrain and challenges, but the potential for changeable weather conditions remains.
After a ceremonial start in the centre of Rijeka on Thursday evening, the rally begins on Friday with a loop of four stages to the west on the Istrian peninsula which will all be run twice either side of mid-day service. Another four stages are run twice on Saturday, this time to the east of Rijeka with a tyre-fitting zone in Karlovac. The rally concludes on Sunday with a pair of repeated stages overlooking the Kvarner Gulf and the Adriatic Sea.
TGR-WRT and their GR Yaris Rally1 car have a strong record in Croatia, winning all four previous editions held as part of the WRC. Elfyn Evans claimed victory in 2023 and has twice finished second and goes into this year’s event leading the drivers’ championship by eight points ahead of team-mate Oliver Solberg.
Elfyn said, “Croatia has been a good rally for us in the past so it’s nice to be going back there. It’s always been a rally with a lot of surface changes and with that a lot of grip changes, but there are more unknowns this year with the event moving towards the coast.
“We will have to see what the new stages are like when we get there and write plenty of new pacenotes during the recce. In our test we had quite wet and muddy conditions, which could be representative of what we’ll face in the rally, but we were also having to think ahead towards the Canaries with some parts linked between the two rallies. Like always, we aim to fight for the best result possible.”
Takamoto Katsuta is just three points further from the lead and fresh from his maiden WRC victory in Kenya. He completes the team’s nominated trio for the manufacturers’ championship, where it defends a 43-point lead. Sami Pajari lines up for TGR-WRT2 after back-to-back podiums on the previous two events, in Sweden and Kenya.
TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto resumes his campaign aboard a GR Yaris Rally2, with he and co-driver James Fulton having completed their recovery from a testing accident prior to Rally Sweden.
