Ott Tänak will make his first rally appearance for Toyota since 2019 at next month’s Rally di Roma Capitale, driving a GR Yaris Rally2 non-competitively.
After stepping away from the World Rally Championship at the end of 2025, Tänak has accepted a testing role with Toyota as it develops its challenger for 2027’s new technical regulations.
Round three of 2026’s European Rally Championship, Rally di Roma Capitale (July 3-5) has attracted interest from WRC competitors – including Lancia duo Yohan Rossel and Nikolay Gryazin – with the event set to replace Sardinia as Italy’s round of the world championship next season.
Toyota has therefore elected to send Tänak and co-driver Martin Järveoja to the event on a fact-finding mission, even if they won’t compete against the clock.
Tänak will drive what’s called a 0-B car – a demonstration car that runs between the double zero and official zero cars and allows organizers to feature selected drivers for promotional purposes without them competing against the clock.
A Toyota statement read: “At Rally di Roma Capitale, our GR Yaris Rally2 test car will serve as ‘zero car’ in the hands of Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja.
“Running non-competitively through the stages in front of the main field, they will help our team gather knowledge of the asphalt event as the region prepares to host WRC in 2027, subject to final approval.”
