– A severe storm devastated the service park of the Rally Paraguay on Saturday morning and severely damaged several team areas, while the special stages themselves remained surprisingly dry.
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M-Sport was hit particularly hard: strong gusts of wind tore down tents, forcing the Ford team to move to an alternative accommodation at short notice. “We just took everything down and moved it into another tent that we rented. That’s real rallying,” explains M-Sport team boss Richard Millener to Motorsport.com Global, the English-language sister edition of Motorsport-Total.com in the Motorsport Network.
At the top of the overall standings, Sami Pajari remained calm despite the turbulence. The Toyota driver maintained his lead and goes into the final day with a 24.4-second advantage over Hayden Paddon (Hyundai). (Rally Paraguay 2026 results)
Since the predicted rain was limited to the service park and did not occur on the stages, many drivers struggled with their cars set up for wet conditions. Pajari survived a scare on the eleventh stage in the morning when he had to continue with a damaged rear wing after going off into a ditch, but controlled the situation confidently in the afternoon.
Paddon, on the other hand, struggled with extreme tire wear on the dry gravel: “My driving style might not be the gentlest on the tires,” admits Paddon. “We don’t have much rubber left and you feel it extremely in all traction zones. I’m really struggling.”
However, the show of the day was delivered by Adrien Fourmaux. The Hyundai driver secured five of nine stage best times on Saturday and launched a chase for third-placed Elfyn Evans (Toyota). While Evans had to acknowledge that Fourmaux “is driving a completely different race than everyone else and is risking everything,” the lead of the championship leader continuously shrank.
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Even a driving error at a junction on the penultimate stage did not stop Fourmaux. On the short spectator stage Encarnacion Costanera, which was completely muddy due to the morning storms, the Frenchman took nearly ten seconds from the speechless Evans over just 3.1 kilometers and reduced the deficit before the final day to a tiny 3.3 seconds.
Behind the podium places, Oliver Solberg (Toyota) moved past Josh McErlean (M-Sport Ford) into fifth place on the last stage of the day after the Ford driver slid off the slippery track. In the WRC2 category, local hero Diego Dominguez (Toyota) continues to hold the lead.
Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) and Sebastien Ogier (Toyota), who retired on Friday, used Saturday to prepare for the points battle on Sunday. Neuville is still complaining about neck pain from Finland but is optimistic: “When everything is warm, it’s fine!”
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On Sunday, the last five special stages over 66.35 kilometers will decide the victory at the premiere in Paraguay.
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