Sébastien Ogier took victory in Paraguay, but heavy rain denied him a shot at bonus points in the championship
Photography by Toyota & Hyundai
Words by Luke Barry
Sébastien Ogier won the first edition of Rally del Paraguay, but was frustrated to have lost important World Rally Championship points due to rain on the powerstage.
Adrien Fourmaux was set to claim a career-best second place after fighting at the front throughout, but dropped to fourth on the powerstage. That allowed Elfyn Evans to finish second – his first podium finish since Rally Islas Canarias in April – with Thierry Neuville sneaking into third.
Ott Tänak, who had been ahead of Evans before a penultimate stage puncture, finished fifth while Kalle Rovanperä took sixth after leading the rally until a puncture on Saturday afternoon.
Ogier won the event by 26.2 seconds, but heavy rain on the powerstage agitated him as it robbed him the chance of scoring more than one Super Sunday point and any additional points from the powerstage.
The late shake-up means Evans’ championship lead stands at nine points, with Ogier and Rovanperä tied for second. Tänak is now 20 points behind.
Choosing not to get out of the car at the finish, a defiant Ogier said: “How unlucky can you be? Only one to have this heavy rain. But we’ll keep winning, and win this championship.”
Fourmaux got closer than ever to a maiden WRC win, but ended up off the podium
Evans was the only Rally1 driver to avoid tire trouble in Paraguay, but he wasn’t happy with his pace on Friday or Saturday. Nevertheless, his much-needed return to the podium – claimed by just 1.0s over Neuville – was important for his championship.
Neuville turned his rally around on Sunday, claiming all 10 bonus points (and lifting himself to third) meaning he took the second-highest number of points from the weekend. Fourmaux finished 1.3s behind him, with Tänak another 2.1s back.
Rovanperä was over a minute further back with fellow Toyota-driving Finn Sami Pajari yet another minute adrift – last year’s WRC2 champion stopping to change a wheel on Friday after hitting a bank.
Takamoto Katsuta, Josh McErlean and Grégoire Munster all finished outside the top-10. Katsuta ripped a wheel off his Toyota on Friday, McErlean retired on Saturday when bedrock broke his sump guard while Munster suffered a nightmare rally.
Losing 40 minutes as he stopped to change a steering arm just 900m into the first stage, he then lost his rear wing and front aero in the afternoon and then retired from Saturday as well with a similar issue to McErlean.
The leading WRC2 cars therefore completed the overall top-10, with Oliver Solberg overcoming a puncture to score his fourth victory of the season. A win at Rally Chile in two weeks’ time would therefore seal him the championship.
“Not a bad comeback!” Solberg beamed. “We fought hard and never gave up. I rate this below Estonia, but I don’t know maybe equal.”
Yohan Rossel finished second, 22.5s adrift, with erstwhile leader Nikolay Gryazin third after stopping to change a puncture on Saturday. Robert Virves also led the event but dropped back with a tire change, eventually finishing fourth.
Gus Greensmith’s event was wrecked on the first morning when the rear axle on his Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 gave up, leaving him with his first non-score of the season.
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Rally del Paraguay, Rally del Paraguay 2025, Sébastien Ogier, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date August 31, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/08/nqmNfZbr-Ogier10PAR25cm367-780x520.jpg August 31, 2025
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