Tanak victory hopes scuppered, Rovanpera extends lead  

Ott Tanak’s World Rally Championship title bid suffered a blow as a puncture derailed his Rally Paraguay victory hopes, while Kalle Rovanpera began to pull clear at the front.

Toyota’s Rovanpera benefitted from Tanak’s woes as the Finn completed Saturday morning’s four stages with a 16.7s lead over Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, while Sebastien Ogier climbed to third [+17.2s].

WRC crews were presented with almost completely different conditions compared to Friday, as hard, polished, yet bumpy roads were replaced by loose gravel stages, with the road cleaning effect significantly increased.

Rovanpera made the most of the best conditions, starting last of the Rally1 cars, to win stage nine by 1.1s from a charging Tanak, who overhauled team-mate Fourmaux into second overall, 8.7s behind Rovanpera. 

However, Tanak’s charge was thwarted when the Hyundai driver suffered a left rear puncture in stage 10. The puncture occurred early in the stage resulting in a loss of 36.8s, as the Estonian plummeted from second to sixth overall [+49.1s].

“Unfortunately nothing I could recognise,” said Tanak. “It was the smoothest stage of the rally, so it was a big surprise. It is a big shame the punctures are deciding the championship, not so nice.”

Although not totally happy with his performance, Rovanpera added further stage wins in stage 11 and stage 12 as the Finn continued to extend his advantage. Rovanpera did, however, lose 1.6s in the final super special stage.

“No, I’m not really [happy],” said Rovanpera. “I could have done a better job with my driving but also there were many places that were tricky. This was a simple stage but it felt so slippy for us. The afternoon is going to be tricky with tyre wear.”

Fourmaux was unable to recapture the speed he displayed on Friday and was at a loss to explain his time loss on occasion. The Frenchman found himself coming under pressure from compatriot Ogier, who appeared to relish Saturday’s stages. 

Ogier, who lost half a minute to a puncture on Friday, claimed stage 10, before setting an impressive pace on stage 11 to sit only 1.4s behind Fourrmaux. That gap reduced to 0.5s after Ogier rounded off the morning by recording a sixth stage win of the event.   

“I think there was not much more we could do regarding our road position,” said Ogier.

Championship leader Elfyn Evans felt the grip on offer was slightly better than Friday, but was frustrated at being unable to make inroads on the podium positions, ending the loop in fourth [+40.8s] after Tanak’s issue.   

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Reigning world champion Thierry Neuville initially reported a better feeling compared to Friday, although his struggles reemerged as the day continued. The Belgian ended the morning 4.6s behind Evans in fifth, although only 3.7s ahead of Tanak.

M-Sport-Ford’s Paraguay weekend went from bad to worse as Josh McErlean was forced to retire from a hard fought seventh position before stage 10. The Irishman’s Ford Puma suffered an impact in the day’s opening stage that left the car wounded and leaking fluid on a road section.

Team-mate Gregoire Munster, now driving a fully repaired Focus, was delayed by a couple of stalls in the opening stage, before struggling to start his car before stage 10 that cost him 30 seconds. Munster was then forced to retire his Puma after suffering a similar problem to that of McErlean. 

McErlean’s exit promoted Sami Pajari to seventh, as the Finn continued to recover from dropping more than two minutes to a puncture on Friday. Pajari’s team-mate Takamoto Katsuta rejoined the rally after crashing out in Friday’s stage seven.      

The battle for the WRC2 honours provided a three-way fight between Yohan Rossel, Nikolay Gryazin and Robert Virves. Gryazin overhauled overnight leader Rossel, ending the loop with a 6.7s lead, with Robert Virves half a second back in third.  

Oliver Solberg managed to climb to fourth, 27.5s from the class lead after losing more than a minute to a puncture on Friday. A second pass through the day’s opening three stages will complete Saturday’s leg of the rally.