WRC Paraguay

The opening stages of the “red roads” rally claimed major contenders on Friday morning. Takamoto Katsuta rolled his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 barely two kilometres into the first stage, while Thierry Neuville damaged his Hyundai’s left-rear suspension after going wide over a jump. Sébastien Ogier, last year’s Paraguay winner, suffered a puncture before hitting a bank and breaking a suspension arm. His temporary repair subsequently failed, ending his day when he parked up mid-stage.  Then came the 33.88-kilometre Yerbatera test, where the rally was turned upside down.  Oliver Solberg had dominated the opening stages, but his Toyota engine stopped under braking while he was leading. Spectators were required to push-start the car, before a slow puncture forced another delay and cost him almost four minutes. Adrien Fourmaux also stopped to replace a delaminated tyre, losing nearly a minute and a half.  

Tyre failures became the defining feature of the rally. Evans nursed a delaminating rear tyre through the stage, Pajari dealt with a similar problem at the front while also managing a water leak, and McErlean reached the finish with another Hankook tyre beginning to disintegrate on his M-Sport Puma. Hayden Paddon, returning to the Rally1 Hyundai i20 initially emerged as the surprise leader. The Hyundai driver survived a morning of extraordinary attrition to reach midday service 23.9 seconds ahead of M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean, with Elfyn Evans a further 2.8 seconds back in the Toyota Yaris.  As Paddon suffered further tyre trouble during the afternoon, Evans briefly inherited the lead for Toyota before his own rear tyre disintegrated on the second pass of Yerbatera, forcing him to nurse his Toyota to the finish on the rim. Pajari avoided the worst of the problems and ended the day 11.9 seconds ahead of Paddon, with Evans third and Fourmaux fourth. 

Saturday

Saturday brought a different challenge. Heavy rain had been forecast, prompting several crews to adopt softer set-ups, while Toyota and M-Sport even fitted snorkels to their Rally1 cars. Instead, much of the morning remained dry, slippery and abrasive. Pajari extended his advantage before running wide into a ditch on Hohenau and tearing the upper section from his rear wing. The damage made the high-speed sections of Trinidad considerably more difficult, but he escaped without a significant time loss and reached service with a 22.8-second advantage. Once the damaged aero was replaced, he resumed control of the rally. Behind him, Fourmaux produced one of the drives of the weekend. The Hyundai driver had been more than 55 seconds behind Evans at the start of Saturday but attacked relentlessly, taking five stage wins and reducing the gap to just 3.3 seconds by the overnight halt. Evans, by contrast, concentrated on limiting risk on roads littered with loose stones after Friday’s tyre failures. 

The championship leader’s cautious approach left him vulnerable to Fourmaux’s charge, setting up a final-day battle for third.