Toyota’s Sami Pajari has extended his Rally Paraguay lead to 22.8s as the anticipated heavy rain avoided the stages and instead struck the service park causing damage to several team facilities.
Heavy rain was expected which prompted teams to set up their cars for wet conditions, and it appeared to be the correct call as strong winds and heavy rain struck the service park on Saturday morning. The winds wreaked havoc, felling several team tents and even moving some of the sturdier temporary WRC team structures. Amazingly, the rain didn’t arrive on the gravel stages to the surprise of the crews.
After ending Friday with an 11.9s lead over Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon, Pajari managed to take time out of his Hyundai rival on three of the four stages to return to service with a healthy lead.
Pajari was however fortunate after surviving a scare in stage 11 when he ran wide in a ditch and damaged the rear wing of his Toyota GR Yaris.
“I guess it [the moment] was quite spectacular looking from the outside, but from the inside it didn’t feel too massive. I didn’t expect to have any damage so it was a big surprise to hear that the wing was damaged. The wing is not there only for the looks so I struggled a bit on the last stage, but it was not so bad,” Pajari told Motorsport.com.
“It has been a good morning so I need to be happy with that.”
Hayden Paddon, John Kennard, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Hyundai Motorsport
With his Hyundai i20 N set up for wet weather, Paddon struggled to replicate the speed and feeling he experienced in the dry on Friday and lost time in his fight with Pajari.
“I looked at a webcam on my phone before leaving the hotel and it looked like a hurricane had gone through the service park. It looked pretty horrendous. So the biggest thought is obviously with all the small teams. But it’s amazing as out on the stages it has been fine and we didn’t see a drop of rain. It was very weird,” said Paddon.
“The whole mindset was for wet conditions. The car was set up for wet. It was a set up that I’ve never driven before.”
Championship leader Elfyn Evans was glad the storm that hit the service park didn’t affect the stages. The Toyota driver managed to win stage nine, the first of the morning loop, as he headed back to midday service in third, 54.1s from the lead.
“I think everybody feels a slight sense of relief on that side [the rain didn’t arrive on the stages],” Evans told Motorsport.com.
“There’s other areas that maybe we didn’t perform as well as we could have or should have [running a wet set up]. Of course, after what happened yesterday with all these punctures, which was so rough, we were just trying to get through without issue.”
Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Hyundai Motorsport
Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux claimed two of the four morning stages as the Frenchman remained in fourth overall, but closed the gap to third-placed Evans to 31.8s.
M-Sport-Ford’s Josh McErlean struggled to wrestle his Puma, set up for the wet, in the dry gravel stages but managed to hold on to fifth spot, although the gap to sixth-placed Oliver Solberg was cut to 35.6s.
M-Sport was the Rally1 team that suffered the most damage to its service area due to the storm and has had to take down its tents and relocate to another tent that it has rented for the event.
“We just took it all back down and put it in another tent that we’ve rented. A bit of proper rallying,” M-Sport-Ford team principal Rich Millener told Motorsport.com. “I think the lucky thing is that there was nobody here in the service park because it was quite dangerous.
“We’re working in a not ideal service park right now but it will be OK.”
Home hero Diego Dominguez continued to lead the WRC2 standings, sitting in seventh overall despite forgetting his glasses at the end of stage 11.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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