Toyota Gazoo one-two finish

Toyota Gazoo Racing left Croatia with a one-two finish after Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston inherited victory on the final stage, with Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen second. (wrc.com) Katsuta won when Hyundai driver Thierry Neuville hit a concrete block on the Wolf Power Stage and damaged his front-right suspension after starting Sunday with a lead of more than one minute. Pajari finished 20.7 seconds behind Katsuta, and Hayden Paddon took third. (wrc.com) The result gave Katsuta and Johnston a second straight World Rally Championship win after their first career victory at Safari Rally Kenya in March. It also moved Katsuta to 84 points in the drivers’ standings, five ahead of Toyota teammate Elfyn Evans. (wrc.com) Croatia was round four of the 2026 season and the first pure asphalt rally of the year. The event returned after a one-year absence with a new base in Rijeka, a route more than 75 percent changed from 2024, and stages shifted away from Zagreb. (wrc.com) Toyota arrived in Croatia already leading the manufacturers’ championship on 157 points to Hyundai’s 114. After Sunday’s finish, Toyota stretched that gap to 206 points against Hyundai’s 141. (wrc.com 1) (wrc.com 2) The one-two did not come from a clean weekend. Pajari led overnight on Friday for the first time in his World Rally Championship career, while Evans and Oliver Solberg both went off the road and dropped out before restarting on Saturday. (toyotagazooracing.com) Pajari still led by 12.7 seconds after stage 13 on Saturday, but a wheel change in stage 14 cost about two minutes. Katsuta also lost around 1 minute 30 seconds to a front-left puncture on the same stage, yet still climbed to second as other crews hit trouble on Croatia’s dirt-strewn asphalt. (toyotagazooracing.com) That sequence explains why Toyota’s finish mattered beyond one rally: the team turned a weekend with punctures, crashes, and two Friday retirements into maximum damage against Hyundai in both championships. Croatia also extended Pajari’s run to three straight podiums. (toyotagazooracing.com) (wrc.com) Toyota has been strong on this event for several seasons, and Croatia’s switch to asphalt after snow, mud, and gravel in the opening rounds tested a different part of the championship. Katsuta had already finished inside the top six on every previous World Rally Championship edition of Croatia Rally before this win. (wrc.com) By Sunday afternoon, the team that started the rally chasing a leader ended it with both top spots. Toyota’s social posts celebrated the one-two, but the standings showed the bigger fact: Katsuta left Croatia leading the drivers’ title race, and Toyota left with a wider manufacturers’ advantage. (wrc.com)