Sami Pajari seals Rally del Paraguay hat-trick for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT as team pushes toward WRC manufacturers title

Sami Pajari delivered a landmark finish at Rally del Paraguay, taking victory to complete a historic run of three consecutive WRC wins for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team. Driving a Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 with co-driver Marko Salminen, Pajari said the result was special not just for the points but because, according to Toyota’s race report, nobody has ever recorded three consecutive round wins in the WRC in the same way he has done after Estonia and Finland.

The rally’s final outcome was shaped by how teams managed a demanding second visit to Paraguayan roads. Toyota said the course combined bumps and compressions with sharp rocks on a clay-like surface, while higher temperatures tested tyres and the cars. A near-constant threat of heavy rain added urgency to decisions on pace and durability, and the GR YARIS Rally1 cars were fitted mid-rally with snorkel systems usually seen in Safari Rally Kenya.

Pajari’s pace had to be earned after early trouble. Toyota reported that he sat as low as seventh overall on Friday morning after developing a water leak in the opening stage. The team kept him moving while the issue was addressed, and once it was fully fixed in mid-day service, he rebuilt his position and took the lead during the day as others encountered larger delays.

From there, the advantage grew steadily. Toyota said Pajari opened a 24.1-second gap by Saturday and ultimately won by 25.8 seconds. Elfyn Evans, driving a Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 with co-driver Scott Martin, finished fourth in a “typically well-managed rally,” ensuring he continued to lead the championship while limiting damage after a tyre issue.

Toyota’s report also highlighted the points swing around the Power Stage and Super Sunday. Oliver Solberg became the rally’s first leader on Friday but lost four minutes after a stall and tyre change in stage three. He later recovered to finish fifth overall, winning the Power Stage, and sharing Super Sunday’s winning time with team-mate Sébastien Ogier. Ogier and Vincent Landais, after restarting rules following suspension damage, took second in the Power Stage and then claimed the full five points on Super Sunday.

Championship context underscores why Toyota’s weekend mattered. After round 11, Toyota said its lead in the manufacturers’ championship now stands at 173 points with 180 points still available. In the drivers’ standings, Toyota reported that Elfyn Evans leads with 216 points, followed by Pajari on 196, Solberg on 175, and Takamoto Katsuta on 160, with three rounds remaining in the WRC campaign.

Toyota’s competitors outside the top positions also carried storylines. Takamoto Katsuta’s rally ended with a high-speed accident in the penultimate stage, and both he and co-driver Aaron Johnston were taken to hospital for precautionary checks before being released the same afternoon. In WRC2, Toyota said the GR Yaris Rally2 delivered a first-ever 1-2-3 finish, with home driver Diego Domínguez taking maiden victory, Gus Greensmith and Jonas Andersson second, and Alejandro Galanti and Marcelo Toyotoshi third for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Paraguay.

Beyond the headline, the team framed the Rally del Paraguay challenge as a test of reliability and tyre management as much as outright speed. Akio Toyoda, chairman of Toyota’s TGR-WRT, praised the team for completing a week affected by severe conditions in the service park and said the event was already tough under normal conditions. Toyoda also singled out Pajari and Salminen for consecutive wins and said the fight for the championship remains active with three rallies to go.

Toyota’s notes also show what it did not fully disclose. The report provides timing gaps, key incidents, and the championship points situation, but it does not detail the engineering findings behind Pajari’s water leak or Evans’ tyre damage beyond the fact they occurred and affected rhythm. It also does not quantify tyre degradation or weather data during each stage, which means the specific performance trade-offs made by each crew remain partly unclear. What is clear, based on Toyota’s account, is that reliability, mid-rally technical adjustments, and avoiding larger setbacks were decisive in a rally described as physically abrasive and exposed to rain risk. Next, cars will be rebuilt in Paraguay and transported across the Andes for Rally Chile, scheduled for September 10-13, in technical forests of the Bio Bío region where Toyota says stages mix smooth and abrasive gravel.

Toyota’s sequence of three consecutive WRC round wins suggests the team has aligned well with the demands of different surfaces across the early-late season, moving from fast European events to South American gravel conditions. For Toyota’s business leadership, results at the top tier are more than sporting. They help support the brand narrative around motorsport-derived engineering, and the manufacturers points lead reduces the pressure of chasing every single round win.

In the broader WRC business landscape, Pajari’s run also tightens attention on who can translate pace into consistency as the remaining calendar shrinks. With Toyota’s manufacturers lead already large, the main uncertainty becomes whether Hyundai can close the gap, or whether Toyota can maintain a clean enough finishing rate in the remaining rounds to convert points into a title.

For investors and automotive watchers, the story remains a reminder that motorsport performance is closely linked to operational execution, from service readiness to mid-event car configuration. Toyota’s account of snorkel fitting during Rally del Paraguay points to how rapidly teams must adapt equipment to environmental risks, a theme that parallels how automakers plan logistics and supply-chain resilience during harsh conditions.

What to watch next is how the team handles the transition from Paraguay to Chile. Toyota’s report sets up Rally Chile as another South American gravel test, and the company will likely lean on the same playbook of reliability-first driving and fast recovery from Friday setbacks, while the rest of the championship field will look for any cracks in Toyota’s pace as points tighten.