Takamoto Katsuta was fastest through Thursday’s Rally del Paraguay’s shakedown stage, posting a time more than a second faster than anybody on the Encarnación-based event.
The Toyota driver was the only man to break the three-minute barrier, completing the 3.48-mile test 1.6s up on Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon, who posted the second quickest time.
How representative of the rally itself that pace will be remains to be seen. After a lengthy day on Friday, rain is forecasted for Saturday and Sunday which could make the clay-surfaced stages treacherous.
Katsuta endured a miserable run at last year’s first WRC round in Paraguay, suffering a puncture on the first stage and crashing out later that day. He arrives in South America third in the standings having slipped behind team-mate and winner in Estonia and Finland, Sami Pajari.
“This week will not be about speed – more like survival,” warned Katsuta, mindful of the forecast.
For Paddon, the event represents a first outing in a top-tier car on gravel since Rally Australia in 2018.
“I’m definitely a lot more confident on the gravel with the car moving around,” said the New Zealander. “But it’s a big slice of the cake to bite off, just jumping straight into one of these cars with not a lot of testing to try and be on the pace, but we’ll do the best we can.”
Wet weather could have a dramatic impact on stages over the weekend
To the nearest tenth of a second, Paddon’s time matched that of his Hyundai team-mates Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux. Neuville required a third run to match the pace of the other i20 N Rally1s, which set their best times on the second pass.
“It’s only the start of what will be a very challenging rally,” smiled Neuville. “We all know that this has been a tremendous rally last year with lots of ups and downs and the weather prediction doesn’t say anything better this year so it’s going to be exciting.”
Championship leader Elfyn Evans was fifth fastest, 0.1s slower than the Hyundai trio, having completed only two runs through the stage.
Evans’s Toyota Yaris was 0.6s faster than the best of the Ford Pumas, driven by Jon Armstrong. M-Sport team-mate Josh McErlean was next, 0.8s further back after exploring the limits of the stage on his first pass.
“A couple of moments,” McErlean admitted. “It’s just trying to find the grip. It’s completely different from anything else we do in the WRC.”
Armstrong was fastest of the M-Sport drivers through the dry shakedown test
The third Toyota of Oliver Solberg matched McErlean’s best. Solberg was 0.2s quicker than team-mate Sami Pajari, who arrives in South America on a high having won the previous two rounds in Europe.
“It’s quite a different rally compared to the previous ones but of course the result has been really great and it has been giving some confidence boost,” said Pajari.
Sébastien Ogier, last year’s winner of the event, completed the Rally1 field. Ogier was nearly 2s slower than Pajari but only completed one representative run.
Among the Rally2 runners, Romet Jürgenson’s Ford Fiesta was fastest, 0.2s quicker than the Toyota GR Yaris of Alejandro Cachón. WRC2 dominator Robert Virves was 11th, but only completed one run compared with the majority of his rivals’ two.
