Toyota’s Sami Pajari edged closer to a third consecutive World Rally Championship victory in Paraguay, while a charging Adrien Fourmaux applied pressure on Elfyn Evans in the fight for third. Pajari increased his 11.9s overnight lead to 24.1s over Hyundai’s Hayden Paddon.
Heavy rain was expected to hit the stages but instead storm force winds and a deluge of rain struck the service park causing damage to several team tents. While cooler temperatures lowered the risk of tyre delaminations and punctures that plagued Friday, constantly changing grip conditions remained a challenge.
Hayden Paddon, John Kennard, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Hyundai Motorsport
Pajari suffered two scares across the nine stages with the Finn fortunate to only suffer a damaged rear wing after running wide into a ditch in stage 11. He reached midday service with a 22.8s lead.
An overshoot on the Bella Vista stage provided another brief scare, but Pajari still outpaced Paddon there and remained composed as tyre management became increasingly important.
“The afternoon was quite exciting even though the conditions were more straight forward but still we were having some small difficulties here and there. The conditions are changing a lot so you have to react quickly,” said Pajari.
“It is cool and I need to be happy about leading but I still see many things which can go wrong. If it was Finland or Estonia a 25 second lead is a solid lead but here you could have one stage with bad conditions and you can make a small mistake easily.
“I don’t know the latest forecast is exactly for Sunday but we are expecting some rain, where and when and how much, that is the question. We will see.”
Paddon struggled to recreate the rhythm that carried him into the lead on Friday, but focused increasingly on preserving tyres and avoiding the trouble that had defined the opening leg.
Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: McKlein Photography / LAT Images via Getty Images
Paddon’s Hyundai team-mate Fourmaux delivered the drive of the day as the Frenchman set his sights on moving into the victory fight. After starting the day 55.0s behind third-placed Evans, Fourmaux won five of the day’s nine stages to end Saturday only 3.3s adrift of Evans, who felt he had been too conservative.
“I’m very proud and I have to accept I’m fighting with the leader of the championship so it was quite nice to take I think 49 seconds and I only had one mistake [a small overshoot in stage 16],” said Fourmaux.
“Clearly the car and me, we had a very good car for these conditions and the set up really helped me. We changed something last night in anticipation of the rain, but it actually suited me very well on the dry so I kept it for the afternoon.
“P3 or even more let’s see [what we can do tomorrow].”
Evans conceded that he was unable to find the pace to compete with Fourmaux.
“Adrien had a very strong day and we have been a bit on the conservative side it looks like. I was not able to find the speed as easily. It is going to make it interesting for tomorrow,” said Evans. Toyota’s Oliver Solberg climbed to fifth after M-Sport-Ford’s Josh McErlean slid wide and took down stage-side advertising on the final test, leaving the pair separated by only 6.3s overnight.
Diego Dominguez, Rogelio Peñate, Toyota Gr Yaris Rally2
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Home hero Diego Domínguez held seventh overall and leads WRC2, despite spending part of the morning driving without his glasses after accidentally leaving them on the roof of his car. Dominguez’s wife sourced a replacement pair from an optician during midday service.
M-Sport-Ford’s Jon Armstrong ended the day in eighth, with WRC2 rivals Gus Greensmith and Fau Zaldivar completing the top 10.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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