Fourmaux suffers late retirement from WRC Rally Paraguay

Elfyn Evans’ World Rally Championship lead has been further reduced as a consequence following Hyundai’s decision to retire Adrien Fourmaux from Rally Paraguay after the finish of the rally.

Fourmaux was on course to claim a podium, having held second heading into the final Power Stage before heavy rain affected the later runners, with Fourmaux and eventual rally winner Sébastien Ogier suffering the worst of the conditions.

Fourmaux slipped from second to fourth as a result, missing out on a podium by 1.3s. However, before the final time control, Hyundai opted to retire the car. This is understood to have been taken to allow the team more set up freedoms for Rally Chile in two weeks’ time.

Paraguay and Chile are classified as linked events, meaning transmission components such as the gearbox and differentials must remain sealed across both rallies. Teams can only replace these components if the car retires from the first rally of the link or receives written approval from the FIA Technical Delegate. Breaking the seals without approval would trigger a five-minute penalty at the following rally.

WRC championship implications

Fourmaux’s retirement affects the WRC title race, with title contender and team-mate Ott Tanak promoted to fourth and title rival Toyota’s Kalle Rovanpera rising to fifth. The pair both picked up two extra championship points.

It means Rovanpera is now just seven points behind championship leader Evans, instead of nine. Ogier has now slipped to third in the championship but remains nine points adrift, while Tanak is now only 18 points shy of Evans.

Speaking before the retirement announcement, Fourmaux said: “I’m just really disappointed with the result in the end. We were in second position for nearly all the rally and were leading the rally on Friday.

“We had a puncture and we managed it, and we kept the second position, and then we lost it and got it back again and today we lost a lot of time twice.

“The car did not start due to a stall and then the next stage the car drunk some water on the water splash and we lost quite a lot of time, and then we lost the second position after heavy rain in the Power Stage.

“For us it was massive rain and even worse for Seb I tried and really pushed hard in the Power Stage to not be losing too much. I missed the podium by 1.3s and 2.3s for the second position.

“I’m happy with the performance, it was really positive to be always fighting at the top. Like in Finland we had the pace but we just didn’t get the result we deserve.”