Oliver Solberg extended his early Rally del Paraguay lead as Thierry Neuville joined Takamoto Katsuta on the retirement list and Sébastien Ogier lost further ground on the second stage.
On another dramatic stage, Solberg’s Toyota was 2.2s faster through the 10-mile Nueva Alborada test than Josh McErlean’s Ford Puma which was second fastest. It left Solberg with a lead of 7.1s over the Hyundai of Hayden Paddon, who was third fastest on SS2, another tenth slower.
“It was quite slippery so just tried by careful,” said Solberg. “There’s a very long stage coming now so it’s important to have the tires.”
However, Adrien Fourmaux, fifth fastest on the stage, was likely to have his time adjusted after being hampered behind a limping Ogier. The world champion hit a bank and broke his Yaris’s front-left suspension. He and co-driver Vincent Landais exited the car to change the tire but were slow through the rest of the stage.
Ogier – who dropped five minutes – was soon caught by Fourmaux, who had to give the Toyota a tap from behind to let him past.
“It’s not every day that you overtake a nine-time world champion in the stage,” Fourmaux smiled. “We were doing the ‘press to pass’ but I don’t think he received it so I did a small push to [say] ‘Hey, I’m there’ and then we pass.
“But for sure I needed to stay calm in the dust because some places I could not see. For the rest I had a good stage, I’m happy.”
Fourmaux is likely to be in a very strong position if his SS2 time is adjusted
Fourmaux was 7.6s down on Solberg, fourth overall on the leaderboard, ahead of any possible adjustment.
His team-mate Neuville didn’t even make it to the stage, retiring on the road section after picking up rear suspension damage on the opener.
McErlean’s time put him fourth overall in the rally, 10s off Solberg’s pace. He is 2s clear of M-Sport team-mate Jon Armstrong, who matched Paddon’s time on the stage.
Sixth overall, 16.1s off the pace, is championship leader Elfyn Evans, who dropped another 6s to his pacesetting team-mate on the stage.
“In terms of performance it’s probably not ideal [to be first on the road] but in terms of puncture safety there’s probably some benefits at least,” reported Evans after another safe run amid the chaos.
Evans is 4.1s clear of team-mate Sami Pajari who dropped time with a technical problem.
“We have an issue,” said Pajari. “It’s a big shame, we need to have a look once again what we can do but we are basically on the limp mode all stage – very disappointing.”
WRC2 has been just as dramatic. Both Alejandro Cachón and championship leader Robert Virves crashed out on the opening stage, where Nikolay Gryazin and Fabrizio Zaldívar both suffered punctures. Zaldívar then had another flat on SS2.
Diego Domínguez’s Toyota currently leads the way by 3.3s from Yohan Rossel’s Lancia.
