Hayden Paddon moved into the lead on Rally del Paraguay’s SS3 as erstwhile leader Oliver Solberg lost almost four minutes to an engine problem and a puncture.
An incredibly dramatic morning continued as Sébastien Ogier’s earlier suspension damage forced him into retirement, while Adrien Fourmaux and Jon Armstrong also dropped significant time following tire issues on the event’s longest stage.
Solberg’s Toyota required a push start ahead of the 21-mile Yerbateras test. He then stalled under braking for a chicane and needed help from spectators to get going again.
“Push! Push!” shouted Solberg as he called the fans to his aid.
He explained at the end of the stage: “The engine stopped on the braking, and obviously that becomes an overshoot because you have no engine [braking]. And then I couldn’t get it started, nothing happened. So I had to wait for some people to push, and it was too tight to push.
“Then all of a sudden on the straight line there was a slow puncture.”
Fourmaux looked set to be the chief beneficiary until he suffered a delamination mid-stage. A quick wheel change by Fourmaux and co-driver Alexandre Coria minimized the time loss to less than two minutes but the Hyundai driver dropped to seventh overall.
Instead it was Paddon who inherited the lead despite ruing his tire choice. The Hyundais were the only Rally1 cars to take any hard tires for the morning loop, and each fitted them for the long third test. But Paddon was not happy with the resulting balance.
“How’s that happened?” said the Kiwi when told he had taken the lead of the rally have won the stage.
“It’s obviously just really, really hard conditions for everyone. Apologies to my nana, but my nana can drive better than that. We changed the tires; it didn’t work, I didn’t like the hard tire at all, it just wasn’t working.
“So struggling with the front and then struggling with the back with the worn softs. Makes it hard for this afternoon because I don’t think the tire choice is that easy now.”
It is the first time Paddon has led a WRC event since 2018, and he admitted he had to “savor the moment”.
Paddon holds a 23.9s advantage over Josh McErlean, who dropped most of that time on SS3 and suffered a puncture late on. “I went off three times in there,” said the Irishman.
Elfyn Evans was second fastest on SS3, 17.2s slower than Paddon, despite a delamination. It lifted him to third overall, 2.8s behind McErlean after the morning loop.
“It’s going to be a tough afternoon surviving,” reckoned the Welshman.
The second Toyota of Sami Pajari is 6.5s further back in fourth overall after losing time earlier due to a water leak.
M-Sport driver Jon Armstrong looked on target to win SS3 until his Ford Puma suffered a puncture. Continuing on the tire then damaged the car’s brakes and led to a spin. Armstrong dropped nearly a minute-and-a-half and fell to sixth overall, behind WRC2 leader Diego Domínguez.
