Sebastien Ogier boosted his bid for a record-equalling ninth World Rally Championship title by recording a stunning fightback from eighth to win the inaugural Rally Paraguay.
Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais bounced back from an early puncture for a fourth win of their partial 2025 campaign on Paraguay’s unknown and unforgiving gravel stages that yielded plenty of drama.
They sealed victory by 26.2s after surviving a final stage rain shower as championship leader Elfyn Evans and reigning champion Thierry Neuville snatched second and third.
Ogier and Kalle Rovanpera are now nine points behind leader Evans, while Toyota joined Citroen as the WRC’s most successful manufacturer regarding rally wins with 102 apiece.
“How unlucky can you be, the only one to have this heavy rain. That is the way it goes. We keep winning and winning the championship,” said Ogier, frustrated by the weather interruption that left him with only one Super Sunday point.
Paraguay proved to be a voyage into the unknown for WRC crews headlined by tricky fast roads with multiple grip changes and bruising crests.
Kalle Rovanperä, Jonne Halttunen, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1
Photo by: Toyota Racing
Rovanpera emerged as the early leader with a 3.2s margin over Ogier after the opening stage. However, Ogier’s victory hopes were dealt a blow by a right rear puncture that cost the Frenchman 37.3s dropping him to eighth after stage two.
At the front, Rovanpera struggled for confidence and wasn’t happy with his driving, a theme that would run through the event. The double champion was soon overhauled by the rapid Adrien Fourmaux, the only Hyundai driver relatively happy with his car’s performance on Friday.
At midday service, Fourmaux held a slender 4.1s lead over Rovanpera with Toyota’s Sami Pajari in third. The puncture risk proved to be incredibly high as Fourmaux suffered two failures on Friday afternoon, the second at the end of stage six handing the lead back to Rovanpera to the tune of 7.6s. Pajari also had to stop and change a wheel in stage seven that put the Finn down in seventh.
Fired up by the time loss from his own puncture, Ogier proved to be the fastest driver winning four of Friday’s eight stages to end the day in fourth, 17.8s adrift of the lead. Only 7.6s separated Rovanpera, Fourmaux and Ott Tanak, the latter had found speed from his i20 N after a slow start.
Tanak was a driver on the move on Saturday, as the Estonian overhauled Fourmaux for second as Rovanpera began to increase his lead to 17.4s.
Ogier continued to display stunning speed, winning stage 10 to move into third. The rise into the podium positions was assisted when Tanak became the latest to suffer a puncture as the Hyundai driver dropped to sixth.
Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport
Ogier rattled off a further three stages wins, a run that included a gamble taking only one spare wheel, to first overhaul Fourmaux into second. Ogier emerged in the lead when Rovanpera picked up a front right puncture in stage 14. Rovanpera lost more than two minutes and plummeted to sixth.
Rovanpera’s woes handed Ogier a 10.3s lead over Fourmaux heading into Sunday’s final four stages. Rain showers in the morning threatened to derail the victory bid, but Ogier held his nerve to score an impressive win.
The battle for the podium positions was a tense affair. A recovering Tanak started Sunday 2.5s behind third-placed Evans, who managed to avoid any serious issues, but had been struggling for outright pace.
Evans ran off the road in the wet stage 16 handing Tank third spot. Evans reclaimed the position in the penultimate stage when Tanak’s Hyundai briefly stopped due to a flooded engine from a water splash, before suffering a right rear puncture in the penultimate stage.
Forumaux lost time to an overshoot and a stall on stage 16, and also endured an engine scare after the water splash that cost him valuable time.
A sudden rain shower that affected the later runners in the Power Stage resulted in Fourmaux slipping from second to fourth [+28.5s] as Evans and Neuville, who faced much drier conditions, overhauled the Hyundai.
Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1
Photo by: McKlein Photography / LAT Images via Getty Images
Neuville fought handling issues with his Hyundai throughout the rally, while also suffering tyre problems. The Belgian finished the rally with a broken front damper but managed to claim 25 points after bagging the maximum Super Sunday score.
Tanak’s second rally setback dropped the 2019 world champion to fifth [+30.6s] ahead of fellow title rival Rovanpera [+2m05.2s], with Pajari in seventh [+3m35.5s]. Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta finished the event under super rally conditions after crashing out from ninth in stage seven, having been delayed by a puncture in the opening stage.
M-Sport-Ford endured a difficult event that included a double retirement for Josh McErlean and Gregoire Munster on Saturday due to similar bedrock impacts that caused oil leaks from their respective Ford Pumas. McErlean had impressed, running as high as seventh before the retirement, while Munster stopped 900 metres into the opening stage with a broken steering arm and brake line, before picking up a double puncture.
Oliver Solberg edged a step closer to the WRC2 title after completing an impressive comeback win after dropping 1m13s to a puncture on Friday. Solberg took the win by 22.5s from title rival Yohan Rossel.
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