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After Saturday morning's stages, Sami Pajari extended his lead in Rally Paraguay over Hayden Paddon to 22.8 seconds, but he was fortunate to even finish the 11th stage, "Hohenau."
The winner of the last two World Rally Championship (WRC) rounds took the lead after Elfyn Evans suffered a puncture in the seventh stage and managed to increase his advantage over two more stages. However, he narrowly avoided a DNF in "Hohenau" after running too wide on a fast left-hand corner and hitting a roadside embankment, with his rear right wheel dropping into a ditch.
Pajari's car bounced onto two wheels, and the impact tore off the top part of his rear wing. Ultimately, he continued and reached the finish without further issues.
"We lost the wing in one stage, and in another, we even hit a small tree on the road," Pajari said at the finish of SS12, the last before the midday service zone. "This is a crazy rally. Even when the conditions aren't too bad, it's very tough."
Just how lucky Pajari was in SS11 became clear a few cars later when Romet Jürgenson crashed. The leading M-Sport driver in the WRC2 category was fastest in his class by 1.9 seconds at the splits, but then ran wide on the same corner, hitting the rear of his Fiesta into the outer embankment. This sent him head-on into the embankment and ditch, causing him to spin several times. The front of his car was destroyed in the impact, forcing him to retire.
All drivers were surprised by the unexpectedly dry conditions today. Heavy rain and wind had hit the service park in Encarnación so severely that it caused significant damage to team camps, with M-Sport having to relocate their service area to a rented tent. However, this weather did not extend to the stages themselves, which were predominantly dry.
This particularly affected second-placed Hayden Paddon: "I'm struggling to find a rhythm at the moment," he said at the end of "Hohenau." "Things aren't working out like yesterday."
He was also concerned by a "false" puncture warning in the "Bella Vista Sur 1" stage, the second stage of the day.
"We had a puncture alarm on the second corner," Paddon said. "That distracted me. It must have been a false alarm because it disappeared after a while. Initially, I thought I had to save the tire, but luck was on our side."
Championship leader Elfyn Evans is now closing in on second place, setting the fastest time in the "Bella Vista" stage and gaining 11.7 seconds on Paddon across the four Saturday morning stages. However, he was disappointed with his performance in "Bella Vista Sur," feeling he was too cautious and lost time to his rivals.
Adrien Fourmaux was the fastest driver in the morning session, 20.5 seconds quicker than anyone else thanks to two stage wins. Most impressive was his drive in the 10.95-kilometer "Bella Vista Sur" stage, where he set the best time with a 7.3-second lead.
The gap he needs to close to reach the podium is still significant, provided conditions remain dry: he trails Evans by 31.8 seconds. But the speed at which this gap narrowed on Saturday morning gave Evans cause for concern.
"He's clearly pushing hard," Evans said of Fourmaux's morning charge. "We're not driving fast enough."
Leading M-Sport driver Josh McErlean holds a 35.6-second lead over Oliver Solberg in fifth place. Solberg lost over four minutes on Friday due to a recurring engine stalling issue and a tire change, but is now making his way up the standings. He overtook Gus Greensmith for seventh in the first Saturday stage, and then passed WRC2 leader Diego Dominguez in "Hohenau."
Dominguez encountered an unusual problem: he left his glasses on the roof of his car during the transit between SS9 and SS10, so he drove most of the morning session with impaired vision.
"It wasn't too bad," Dominguez said about driving without glasses. "But I certainly lose confidence without them."
Jon Armstrong moved into a points-scoring position with the second M-Sport car, taking tenth place from Alejandro Galanti in the final stage of the session, "Trinidad," and gained another position when Marco Bulacia crashed out of fourth place in WRC2.
Sébastien Ogier, Thierry Neuville, and Takamoto Katsuta restarted after their retirements on Friday. For Neuville, Saturday morning was somewhat painful, as he revealed that a neck impact during SS10 aggravated a previous injury he sustained during the Power Stage in Finland – the same section of road that led to Oliver Solberg's ongoing back problems.
"I hit my neck in that stage," Neuville said at the finish line of "Bella Vista Sur." "I still have an injury from the Power Stage in Finland, and it was extremely painful for me over the last few kilometers."
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