Adrien Fourmaux has turned the screw on Elfyn Evans in the battle for third place at Rally del Paraguay, winning five of Saturday’s nine stages to narrow the deficit to 3.3 seconds.
Sami Pajari still leads the way by 24.4s over Hayden Paddon, with neither driver willing to push the limits on Saturday afternoon.
“My driving style is maybe not the easiest on tires,” said Paddon, who slid wide multiple times on the day-ending Encarnacion Costanera stage. “We don’t have a lot of tire left on this one and you can really feel it in all the traction zones, I’m really struggling.”
The day’s final stage was a short three-kilometer blast along the shoreline of the rally’s host city, partially on asphalt roads and partially on a purpose-built gravel road. But that purpose-built road was soaked by a storm that had hit the town in the small hours of the morning and was fully mud conditions rather than gravel – leaving drivers skating all over the road, the conditions worsening for later runners.
Fourmaux looked like a blur to his rivals, winning five stages out of nine and outclassing the field
That present Fourmaux with a last opportunity to strike against Evans in his day-long campaign to catch the podium runners.
Hyundai’s best-placed driver in the championship had already carved massive chunks of time out of Evans, much to the championship leader’s bemusement. On the second pass of Bella Vista Sur, Evans suggested that Fourmaux “clearly he doesn’t care about the rough,” highlighting the i20 N Rally1 driver was taking more risks. By the penultimate Trinidad test, that had pivoted to begrudging respect: “Adrien has, in fairness, been in a different rally to everyone else,” said Evans. “He’s risking everything.”
Fourmaux had made a mistake on Trinidad, overshooting a junction and dropping five seconds. Despite his error he made a bold statement at the finish line: “We still have one stage to go tonight, we can make some good gap.”
He delivered on that bullish statement, going 9.8 seconds faster than Evans in only 3.1 kilometres on SS17 to cut the lead gap to 3.3s.
Evans faced a battering in the timing sheets from Fourmaux, his 55s gap at the start of Saturday being reduced to 3.3s by the end of it
Evans was left literally speechless when told how much time he’d lost to Fourmaux at the finish.
Oliver Solberg moved into fifth place on the final stage of the day, finally catching and passing Josh McErlean’s Ford Puma Rally1. The best-placed M-Sport driver also went off the road on the slippery final stage, dropping 15s to stage winner Takamoto Katsuta and, crucially, 7.3s to Solberg.
Jon Armstrong, who lost several minutes on Friday to brake damage caused by driving too hard on a deflated front-right tire, is now only 19.6s behind WRC2 leader Diego Domínguez in the battle for sixth place.
Gus Greensmith has almost halved Domínguez’s class lead, the gap now 24.7s between the two Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 drivers with five stages remaining on Sunday.
Domínguez is one day away from sending the home fans into delirium
In a positive sign for Sébastien Ogier hopes of a solid Sunday points haul, the reigning world champion was second-fastest across Saturday’s stages, 24.5s off Fourmaux’s blazing run. The next fastest driver, Solberg, was 44.1s off Fourmaux’s Saturday pace.
Friday retirees Katsuta and Thierry Neuville also completed Saturday’s mileage in full, gearing up for a Sunday points push. Neuville was still nursing neck pain first sustained on the Rally Finland powerstage – but suggested the less bumpy stages presented a much lower risk.
“I got some big hits on the short stage [Bella Vista Sur] earlier, and also this morning,” said Neuville. “Now it’s fine. When everything is warm, it’s OK!”
Five stages and 66.35 kilometres of competitive action remain on Sunday.
