WRC Rally Paraguay 2026: Pajari makes history with hat-trick

– Sami Pajari (Toyota; 1st) made WRC history at the premiere of the Rally Paraguay. With his third consecutive win following successes in Estonia and Finland, the Finn is the first driver in the history of the World Championship to achieve two more wins in a row immediately after his debut victory.

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Pajari prevailed at the end of an extremely exhausting gravel battle with a 25.8-second lead over Hayden Paddon (Hyundai; 2nd). Adrien Fourmaux (Hyundai; 3rd) overtook the championship leader Elfyn Evans (Toyota; 4th) on the final day and secured the last podium spot. With the victory, Pajari reduced his championship deficit to Evans to just 20 points.

“Unbelievable. A big thank you once again to the team. It was not an easy rally, neither for the drivers nor for the crew. Building such a reliable car is the key to success. This is a truly proud moment and I am extremely happy,” raved Pajari after his historic hat-trick.

Tire debacle on Friday takes out top stars

It had already become clear on Friday that the win at the tough South American premiere would come down to pure durability. The coarse clay soil demanded everything from the equipment at high temperatures and caused a series of tire damages and tread separations (delaminations).

Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota; DNF) was hit early with a rollover on the first stage, as was Thierry Neuville (Hyundai; DNF), who had to retire after a tire damage with a broken suspension. Sebastien Ogier (DNF) also stopped his Toyota early after two tire damages and damaged suspension.

Oliver Solberg (Toyota; 5th) lost more than four minutes due to an engine problem and a trip into the ditch. Surprise leader Paddon lost the lead briefly to Evans in the afternoon due to a tire damage, before the Welshman also had to limp to the finish on the bare rim. Pajari was largely spared from tire damage and went into Saturday as the leader.

Fourmaux storms onto the podium

On the second day, the weather added extra drama: A storm devastated the service park in Encarnacion on Saturday morning and severely damaged the tent accommodations of M-Sport.

However, the predicted rain did not occur on the special stages, which caused significant setup problems for many teams with their wet-tuned cars. Despite a damaged rear wing after a ditch excursion, Pajari withstood the attacks from the competition, while Fourmaux started his spectacular comeback on Evans with five fastest stage times.

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On the final day, Fourmaux completed his comeback and pushed Evans down to fourth place. Behind them, Solberg fought his way up to fifth place after his problems on Friday.

Josh McErlean (M-Sport-Ford) brought his Ford Puma to sixth place despite a makeshift repair of the gear lever with a wrench. His teammate Jon Armstrong (M-Sport-Ford; DNF) had to bury his seventh place on the 20th stage due to suspension damage.

Local hero Diego Dominguez (Toyota; 7th) benefited from this and celebrated victory in the WRC2 category as seventh in front of the home fans. The top 10 were completed by Gus Greensmith (Toyota; 8th), Alejandro Galanti (Toyota; 9th), and Taylor Giull (Skoda; 10th), who took second to fourth places in WRC2.

Katsuta with serious accident on Sunday

The scare moment of Sunday was again caused by Takamoto Katsuta: The Japanese driver rolled over for the second time this weekend on the 21st special stage, after which the stage had to be stopped.

Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston were reportedly uninjured but were taken to the hospital for precautionary examinations. Team boss Juha Kankkunen says: “They are both okay. But the car is completely wrecked. It looked very strange how the rear just broke out in a fast left-right kink.”

The South America leg of the World Rally Championship (WRC) will be completed from September 10 to 13 in Chile.

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