WRC 2026 Rd.05 Preview | 2026 | PRESS RELEASE | WRC

Rally Islas Canarias: Preview TGR-WRT ready to race on thrilling island roads

2026.04.17 (Fri)

TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team is all set to attack another asphalt spectacular when Rally Islas Canarias hosts round five of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship on April 23-26.

The team arrives on the island of Gran Canaria with Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta leading the drivers’ championship for the first time in his career, following back-to-back victories on the demanding dirt tracks of Safari Rally Kenya in March and challenging asphalt roads of the Croatia Rally just last week.

GR YARIS Rally1 drivers currently fill the top four places in the standings. Elfyn Evans is second, seven points away from Katsuta, with Oliver Solberg six points further back in third. TGR-WRT2 driver Sami Pajari is fourth, 29 points from the lead, after finishing on the podium in each of the last three events. Returning to action to complete a full-strength line-up for this event is reigning world champion Sébastien Ogier, who sits sixth in the championship having contested two rounds so far this year.

TGR WRC Challenge Program driver Yuki Yamamoto begins his WRC2 points-scoring campaign after a promising return to action in Croatia and is one of eight GR Yaris Rally2 drivers entered into the class. He is joined by Spanish star Alejandro Cachón, Paraguayan pairing Diego Domínguez and Andrea Lafarja, Canary Islands champion Enrique Cruz, Northern Ireland’s Philip Allen, Austrian Johannes Keferböck and French WRC2 debutant Adrien Mosca.

While Rally Islas Canarias only made its WRC debut in 2025, returning a Spanish round to the calendar, this will be the 50th edition of the event.

In contrast to the often dirty, broken and slippery asphalt experienced in Croatia, the roads that wind across the mountainous terrain of Gran Canaria usually offer consistently high grip thanks to a surface made partly from volcanic lava. This draws comparisons to racing circuits, but the room for error is still small with stages often lined by barriers on one side and rock on the other. The abrasive asphalt makes tyre wear a consideration, and although the island’s location off the coast of northwest Africa makes it a popular warm and sunny holiday destination, changeable conditions can also blow in from the Atlantic Ocean.

The rally is again based in the island’s capital city Las Palmas with the service park located at the Gran Canaria Stadium, which this year also hosts a super special stage that opens the event on Thursday night. The same test is repeated to round out Friday after two loops of three mountain stages. Another loop of three stages is run twice to form the longest day of the rally on Saturday, with a pair of repeated tests to conclude the event on Sunday.

Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“Rally Islas Canarias is a very nice event. I have done the rally many times myself and the roads are really enjoyable to drive. There is a great passion for rallying, as we all experienced when the WRC went for the first time last year, and we look forward to returning for the 50th edition. We had a very strong performance last year, when we finished 1-2-3-4. I’m sure it could be closer between the different cars this time, like we saw in Croatia, but I’m feeling quite confident. Both Taka and Sami are driving very well at the moment with good confidence and this is a rally that can suit them. Elfyn and Oliver both showed their speed on Sunday in Croatia, which is promising for the Canaries. We also have a certain Sébastien Ogier back with us, so I think we have good chances.”

Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“Even though the surface is similar, Rally Islas Canarias is a very different rally from Croatia. In Croatia, the roads were really polluted with gravel and dirt, whereas in the Canaries the stages are very clean and smooth, so the grip level is much higher. It’s the most racing-like rally that we have in the calendar and that requires something more like a racing car in terms of setup, running low and stiff. That makes it hard to carry much in the way of learning forward from Croatia, but we did have a test on Spanish roads this week to try and prepare as well as we can, and we’ll be aiming as high as we can for the rally.”

Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 1)
“It was fun to do Rally Islas Canarias for the first time last year and I’m looking forward to going back. It’s nice to have some circuit-style stages back on the calendar, and reminds me a bit of the roads we used to drive in Catalunya. The road conditions remain pretty consistent and offer a more level playing field for everyone. You need to have a fast car which gives you confidence to drive on the limit, and we could work on that in our test on Spanish roads this week, which was a good chance to get back in the rhythm after a short break. Hopefully we can be in the fight for victory and go one better than our second-place last year.”

Oliver Solberg (Driver car 99)
“Rally Islas Canarias is a beautiful rally with great roads and an amazing atmosphere. This will be my first time doing it with a Rally1 car, but I’m really looking forward to it. Even if we didn’t get the overall result we should have done in Croatia, we had a fantastic feeling in the car and the speed was really good on the cleaner stages on the final day. We were also able to get more experience and feeling with the hard tyre, which will be the first choice for the hot and abrasive conditions in the Canaries. We know that we have the speed and performance, so I have a really good feeling going into this event.”

Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“I enjoyed Rally Islas Canarias a lot last year and I’m really looking forward to being back. It’s very different to Croatia but it’s very nice to drive. At the same time, there is absolutely no room for error because everybody is driving absolutely on the limit, so a small mistake can cost you a lot, even if it’s only a few tenths or one second. It will be nice to be the first car on the road on Friday, even though it’s less of an advantage there because there is not much cutting and the roads stay quite clean. I will try my best and maybe get some tips from my friend Kalle Rovanperä, who was very fast there last year.”

Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“I’m really looking forward to Rally Islas Canarias: it’s one of my favourite rallies. The character is totally different to Croatia, which is somewhere I would not have expected to do so well. Still, we managed to lead a lot of the rally and finish second there. On paper, I think the Canaries can suit us even better. I enjoyed the rally already last year: we had some good pace and, more generally, I think my performance on asphalt has been stronger when the roads are cleaner, even in Croatia. We have a lot of positives to take forward into the Canaries and I hope we can have an even better rally.”

Yuki Yamamoto (Driver WRC Challenge Program GEN2)
“I did Rally Islas Canarias for the first time last year and it was a really nice, pure asphalt rally. Even though we didn’t finish, we gathered good experience of the stages and our times were improving during the rally. This will be the first rally in which we are registered to score WRC2 points, so we want to aim to have a strong result. We gained a lot of helpful knowledge in Croatia, especially on the cleaner stages on the final day, and I think Canaries can be a really good event for us.”