Sami Pajari has extended his Rally del Paraguay lead over Hayden Paddon to 22.8s – but was lucky to reach the end of the Hohenau test at all.
The winner of the last two WRC rounds had been elevated to overnight leader status after an SS7 puncture for Evans and had extended his lead after two stages – but very nearly didn’t finish Hohenau, after he ran wide and hit a bank on a fast left-hander.
His GR Yaris Rally1 bounced into the air on two wheels and the impact sheared the upper plane of his rear wing off, though ultimately he continued to the finish with no mechanical damage.
“On one stage we lose the wing, on one stage we even hit one small tree on the way,” said Pajari at the finish of SS12. “So it’s a crazy rally, even when the conditions aren’t so bad, it’s a demanding rally.”
His moment on Hohenau aside, it's been plain sailing for Pajari on Saturday morning in Paraguay
Pajari’s lucky escape on SS11 was demonstrated a few cars later by Romet Jürgenson. M-Sport’s lead WRC2 contender was fastest in his class by 1.9s on the splits but he then ran wide at the same corner, smacking the rear of his Fiesta Rally2 into the outside bank. That pitched him nose-first into the dirt wall and wrecked the front end of his car, bringing his rally to a halt.
All drivers were caught out by the unexpectedly dry conditions. Heavy rain and wind had battered the service park to the point of heavily damaging team structures, to the point that M-Sport had to relocate its service bays inside a rented tent. But that didn’t translate onto the stages themselves, which were mostly dry.
That affected second-placed Paddon more than most: “I’m struggling for rhythm at the moment,” he said at the end of Hohenau. “It’s not gelling like it was yesterday.”
He was also perturbed by a ‘false’ puncture warning aboard his i20 N Rally1 on the Bella Vista Sur test.
“We had a puncture alarm at the second corner,” said Paddon. “That threw me off. It must have been a false alarm because it disappeared after a while. Initially I thought ‘we have to manage this’ but luck was on our side.”
Championship leader Elfyn Evans is now closing on second place, setting fastest time on the Bella Vista test and gaining 11.7s on Paddon across Saturday morning’s four stages. But he was disappointed in his run in Bella Vista Sur, feeling he was too cautious and gave away time to his rivals.
Adrien Fourmaux was the fastest driver of the morning loop, 20.5s quicker than anyone else thanks to two stage wins. Most impressive was his drive on the 10.95-kilometer Bella Vista Sur test, setting fastest time by 7.3s
Adrien Fourmaux was by far the fastest driver across Saturday's first four stages
His gap to overcome to reach the podium places is still a tall order, so long as conditions remain dry: he is now 31.8s behind Evans. But the rate at which that gap has shrunk on Saturday morning has given Evans cause for concern.
“He’s going hard, obviously,” said Evans of Forumaux’s Saturday morning push. “We are not going hard enough.”
Leading M-Sport driver Josh McErlean has 35.6s in hand over Oliver Solberg in fifth place. Solberg had lost over four minutes on Friday between a repeated engine stalling issue and stopping to change a puncture but is now pushing back through the field, taking seventh from Gus Greensmith on Saturday’s first stage and then passing WRC2 leader Diego Domínguez on Hohenau.
Domínguez faced an unusual problem: he left his glasses on the roof of his Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 on the road section between SS9 and SS10, so drove most of the morning loop with his vision lacking its usual sharpness.
Diego Domínguez is has over half a minute in hand over the chasing Gus Greensmith in the WRC2 lead battle
“Not too bad,” said Domínguez of his driving sans-glasses. “But for sure I am losing confidence without my glasses.”
Jon Armstrong has moved into a points-paying position in the second Ford Puma Rally1, taking 10th from Alejandro Galanti on the loop-ending Trinidad test and gaining another place when Marco Bulacia crashed out of fourth in WRC2.
Sébastien Ogier, Thierry Neuville and Takamoto Katsuta all restarted after their Friday retirements. For Neuville Saturday morning was a somewhat painful one, revealing that an impact to his neck on SS10 aggravated a previous issue he’d picked up during the Rally Finland powerstage – the same bit of road that led to Oliver Solberg’s ongoing back issues.
“I hit my neck in this stage,” said Neuville at the stop line of Bella Vista Sur. “I’m still injured from Finland powerstage and it was super painful for me for the last few kilometres.”
