Neuville’s final-stage agony hands Katsuta WRC Croatia Rally victory

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta (above) snatched a dramatic WRC Croatia Rally victory on Sunday after Thierry Neuville crashed his Hyundai out of a commanding lead on the rally-ending Wolf Power Stage.

Neuville had looked set to take Hyundai Motorsport’s first win of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship season, carrying a lead of more than one minute into the final, 9.05-mile Alan-Senj 2 stage. But the Belgian’s hopes were shattered when he slid wide on loose gravel at a fork in the road, took to an escape road, but struck a concrete block and damaged the front-right suspension of his i20 N Rally1.

The 2024 WRC champ attempted to keep moving, but was losing so much time that he parked up near the finish, having been radioed by the team to stop. He worked on the car for almost 20 minutes, then crawled to the finish line, and retirement, some 21m28.8s slower than the fastest stage time.

“I can only say sorry to everyone involved,” said a devastated Neuville. “Working hard, that’s the only thing I can say. All the rest we will see later. I’ve no explanation at the moment, so, sorry. This cannot happen but we will see exactly what went wrong.”

That left Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston to claim a second successive WRC win, backing up their breakthrough success in the mud and ruts of last month’s Safari Rally Kenya with a first victory on asphalt.

Katsuta’s teammate Sami Pajari was promoted to second in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1, 20.7s behind the winner, while Hayden Paddon delivered some scant consolation to Hyundai as he completed the podium on his first Croatia Rally start and only his second outing of the season.

For much of the final morning’s four stages along the Adriatic coast, the result had seemed beyond doubt. Neuville started Sunday with a 1m14.5s advantage, while Katsuta’s task was simply to secure second and bank the points. Pajari, meanwhile, was left trying to salvage what he could after losing the rally lead and a potential first WRC victory with a puncture on Saturday afternoon.

Katsuta completed the rally with the fifth-fastest time on the Power Stage, seemingly content to settle for the runner-up slot. But after Neuville’s rally unraveled, a confused Katsuta was told in real time at his finish-line interview that he’d won his second rally in a row.

Takamoto Katsuta celebrates an unexpected Croatia Rally win with co-driver Aaron Johnston. The Japanase Toyota driver now leads the WRC drivers’ standings.

It was a cruel end for Neuville, who’d driven one of his strongest rallies since clinching his ’24 WRC crown and, in a season where Hyundai has struggled to match a rampant Toyota factory squad, appeared to have done everything required to convert his Saturday lead into victory.

For Katsuta, however, it marked another major milestone as, for the first time ever, the result lifts him to the top of the WRC drivers’ standings. The Japanese driver sits on 84 points, five ahead of Elfyn Evans, with Oliver Solberg third on 68.

Toyota also strengthened its hold on the WRC manufacturers’ standings, moving to 206 points against Hyundai’s 141.

Pajari’s second place made it a third consecutive podium for the Finn, but it was a bittersweet reward after a rally he’d looked more than capable of winning outright. He’d led from Friday morning until deep into Saturday’s second leg, only for a puncture on the second pass through the gravel-strewn Generalski Stol–Zdihovo stage to cost more than two minutes and knock him out of contention.

“It is always positive when you can finish on the podium,” said Pajari. “I need to be happy for that, but at the same time I feel disappointed. The win was in our hands for a long time before it was taken away.”

Paddon, meanwhile, delivered one of the standout drives of the weekend. The New Zealander, who’s running a part-time campaign with Hyundai in 2026, kept it all clean while others hit trouble and was rewarded with third place. It was his first podium since Rally Australia in 2018, during a previous spell with the Korean marque’s factory squad.

“A result is a result,” said Paddon. “We have done it by being a bit technical and having wisdom and being smart.”

Hayden Paddon provided some consolation to Hyundai, the New Zealander earning third place after a controlled drive. Red Bull Content Pool

Elsewhere, Solberg continued to underline what might have been. After his opening-stage crash on Friday morning, the Swede dominated the timing screens in his factory GR Yaris, winning the Super Sunday classification by 13.1s from Toyota teammate and fellow leg-one crasher Evans.

M-Sport Ford’s Jon Armstrong also impressed again on asphalt, ending the Super Sunday standings third in his Puma Rally1, albeit 33rd in the overall order after numerous earlier issues.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Yohan Rossel sealed a landmark victory for Lancia, giving the new-for 2026 Ypsilon HF Rally2 its first win in the category.

Thanks to the high attrition among the headlining Rally1 entries, the Frenchman finished fourth overall in a result that also marked Lancia’s first top-five overall finish on a WRC round since 1994.

Rossel didn’t put a step wrong across an incredibly challenging weekend, eventually winning by 38.8s over his younger brother, Leo, at the wheel of a Citroen C3 Rally2.

Nikolay Gryazin was able to make it a double celebration for Lancia, completing the podium in just the second WRC2 start for the storied Italian marque’s all-new program.

“This team is like my family,” said an emotional Rossel. “Sometimes it is hard because you have a dream and you cannot do what you want, but I have a great team behind me. They push me a lot to keep the concentration and the motivation to stay in WRC2.”

Yohan Rossel delivered a first WRC2 win for Lancia, and its first overall top-five WRC finish since 1994. McKlein/Getty Images

The WRC remains on asphalt for the Canary Islands Rally later this month. The rally is based on Gran Canaria, the largest of the Spanish territory’s islands off the northwest coast of Africa, and takes place April 23-26.

WRC Croatia Rally, final positions after Sunday/Leg Three, SS20

1 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 2h51m15.8s

2 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +20.7

3 Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m07.7s

4 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Lancia Ypsilon HF – WRC2 winner) +5m19.9s

5 Leo Rossel/Guillaume Mercoiret (Citroen C3 – WRC2) +5m58.7s

6 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Lancia Ypsilon HF – WRC2) +6m17.8s

7 Alejandro Cachon/Borja Rozada (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +6m42.8s

8 Roope Korhonen/Anssi Viinikka (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +6m54.0s

9 Roberto Dapra/Luca Gugliemetti (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +7m38.1s

10 Emil Lindholm/Gabriel Morales (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +9m20.5s 

WRC Drivers’ Championship after 4 of 14 rounds 

1 Katsuta 81 points

2 Elfyn Evans 74

3 Oliver Solberg 68

4 Pajari 52 

5 Adrien Fourmaux 49

6 Sebastien Ogier 26

WRC Manufacturers’ Championship after 4 of 14 rounds

1 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT 208 points   

2 Hyundai Word Rally Team 131 

3 Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2 55

4  M-Sport Ford 51 

• Catch WRC action from all rounds of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship on RACER Network and the RACER+ App. 
• Tune in on Monday, April 13 at 9.00pm ET for full highlights from Rally Croatia. It’s the WRC’s first all-asphalt round of the season, so get set for high-speed action on the coastal roads and mountain passes around host city Rijeka.
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