)
Sami Pajari became the fourth different leader on the opening day of Rally Paraguay after Elfyn Evans suffered a puncture in Friday's penultimate stage.
Pajari holds an 11.9-second lead over Hayden Paddon after a dramatic day that began with Takamoto Katsuta crashing out in the very first stage. Thierry Neuville and Sébastien Ogier were the next casualties, both suffering suspension damage. Neuville's issue stemmed from a torn tire, while Ogier hit an embankment. Tire delamination and punctures became a recurring theme throughout the day.
Evans' Toyota suffered a delamination on its rear-right tire midway through the 34-kilometer 'Yerbaeteras' Stage 7. Evans and co-driver Scott Martin opted not to stop, continuing to the finish and losing just over a minute – approximately 30 seconds less than a tire change would have cost them.
Evans wasn't the only one to suffer in the dramatic stage, where Pajari and his Toyota teammate Oliver Solberg were the only Rally1 class drivers to avoid issues. At the finish, the two recorded almost identical times, separated by just 0.1 seconds.
“I think it’s a lottery whether you get a puncture or not, so I have to be happy with my performance,” Pajari admitted. “But we are still very early in this rally, and a lot has already happened.”
Hayden Paddon, who took the lead in Stage 3 after Solberg encountered problems, before dropping to second with a puncture in Stage 6, suffered another tire failure in Stage 7. However, Paddon's tire carcass held up for most of the stage, only fully disintegrating in the final few kilometers. This limited his loss to just 20.8 seconds against Pajari, allowing him to retain second place overall, while Evans slipped to third.
"It's never easy, but that's our job as rally drivers – to manage the situation," stated Paddon, who is 44.4 seconds ahead of Evans in the battle for second place.
Evans commented: “Obviously, a lot is happening here to a lot of people. The tire situation is somewhat unsurprising, but it’s not at this level.”
Paddon's teammate, Adrien Fourmaux, finished Stage 7 49.6 seconds behind Pajari, which could be considered a success given that the Frenchman lost both of his rear tires.
Fourmaux won four of the day's eight stages and actually climbed to fourth place overall in the penultimate stage, nearly two minutes behind leader Pajari.
This was made possible because M-Sport's Josh McErlean stopped to change a tire in Stage 7, losing over two minutes. After starting the stage less than a second behind Pajari, the Irishman ended the day more than two minutes adrift of the leader, in fifth place overall.
The leading WRC2 drivers, local favorite Diego Dominguez and Gus Greensmith, hold sixth and seventh place overall after Friday's stages. WRC2 championship leader Robert Virves lost over an hour after a crash in the first stage, and punctures were a common occurrence in this class as well.
Solberg is eighth overall after the first day, three and a half minutes behind the leader. He won the first two stages of the rally before losing almost four minutes due to a difficult-to-clear engine stall and a puncture in Stage 3. The Swede then steadily climbed the standings with a clean afternoon.
Rally2 class cars of Marco Bulacia and Romet Jürgenson complete the top 10 after day one.
The last of the Rally1 participants to complete the day's stages was John Armstrong in his Ford Puma. Armstrong was late leaving the midday service, where the M-Sport team had to perform significant front-end repairs after damage caused by a puncture in Stage 3. He is 14th overall, more than six minutes behind the leader.
The Toyota team has repaired Takamoto Katsuta's and Sébastien Ogier's cars, and they will return to the competition today under Super Rally rules.
,fit(112:112)&format=webp)
&format=webp)
&format=webp)
&format=webp)
,fit(112:112)&format=webp)
,fit(112:112)&format=webp)