Of the 10 World Rally Championship rounds held so far in 2026, Toyota has won nine of them.
Championship leader Elfyn Evans, reigning champion Sébastien Ogier, Takamoto Katsuta and most recent winner Sami Pajari have each taken two victories, with Oliver Solberg claiming one.
Hyundai’s only success came courtesy of Thierry Neuville in Portugal.
With no Hyundai or M-Sport driver currently ahead of any Toyota driver in the drivers’ standings either, it’s no surprise that Toyota is closing in on a sixth manufacturers’ title in a row, and 10th in total.
This week’s Rally del Paraguay gives Toyota its first opportunity to secure that title.
Its current advantage over Hyundai stands at 174 points, with up to 240 points still available for a manufacturer to claim (as 60 points is the maximum score per event).
However, after Paraguay, only 180 points will be available. That means if Toyota outscores Hyundai by seven points this week, it will be crowned manufacturers’ champion.
Only twice this season has the GR Yaris Rally1 squad failed to do that. The first was at Safari Rally Kenya, where Katsuta won but wasn’t nominated to score manufacturers’ points and Pajari was third, but is scoring points for Toyota’s second team. Adrien Fourmaux was second but took top manufacturer points for Hyundai, helping it to outscore Toyota by eight.
The other occasion was Portugal, where Neuville profited from a late Ogier puncture to win the event. Hyundai scored 51 points in Matosinhos, with Toyota collecting 46.
Every single time Toyota has outscored Hyundai, it has done so by more than seven points. Its narrowest margin was Estonia, where Toyota bettered Hyundai’s score by 10.
