The WRC's very first trip to Paraguay was deeply important in the race for the 2025 titles
Photography by Toyota, M-Sport & Hyundai
Words by Luke Barry
I had the intro all mapped out.
Sébastien Ogier leading the World Rally Championship three rounds into 2023 was impressive enough considering he’d missed a round, I’d write.
Ogier heading the pack 10 rounds in after he’s sat out three is just absurd. Yet that’s nothing but the truth at the conclusion of Rally del Paraguay.
Except it’s everything but the truth, as a late rainshower torpedoed Ogier’s hopes of a strong haul of bonus points (and cost Adrien Fourmaux two positions) meaning despite his brilliance, Elfyn Evans still enjoys the lead of the WRC.
Nevertheless, Ogier still won the rally. So with four wins and seven podiums from seven starts, is Ogier now the absolute favorite for this championship title?
Here’s what we learned from the WRC’s inaugural trip to Paraguay.
There were concerns after recce that the stages were potentially too boring, punctuated by straights and junctions, but the rally we witnessed was anything but boring.
Too many punctures for the drivers and teams’ taste aside, this was an entertaining and unpredictable event with a fervent fan base not seen in many other corners of the world.
Any new event in the WRC needs to stand out and make its mark which Paraguay certainly did, even though the Sunday rain made things far more stressful and difficult than some had planned!
When Sébastien Ogier is all-in, expect nothing else. His anger at the final stop-line of Paraguay may seem strange, but it spoke volumes of just how badly he wants this championship title.
And that’s not because he wants to be equal with Sébastien Loeb, but because nobody in the world wants to win more than he does.
Seeing those extra Sunday and powerstage points disappear through no fault of his own cut deep. Eventually Ogier could see that another podium, another win and more points scored than the rest were all positives. But he’s not a man comfortable with letting opportunities go begging.
His drive in Paraguay proved it. Dealt the blow of a stage two puncture, Ogier made it his mission to recover the ground and claim the best result available. Only he’ll know whether he truly believed he could win from that position, but the send-it nature of his performance proved he’s still just as willing to throw the kitchen sink at it as he is to masterfully defend an advantage.
If I were any of his world championship rivals, that would worry me greatly.
Again he was the first to admit his performance on the first two days particularly wasn’t brilliant. But while the rest keep enduring yo-yoing form, Elfyn Evans has been metronomically consistent this year – a return to the podium for the first time in six rallies hardly badly timed as the championship race intensifies.
On pace alone, Evans isn’t driving like a world champion just now. But his dependability cannot be ignored, and in the past that has often proved to be the route to success.
Granted, he cashed in his luck with that late rain shower that cost Ogier the chance of better points on Sunday, but Evans was right to point out the wet weather blunted his Sunday haul too.
However the more worrying stat for Evans is that of the seven rallies he and Ogier have both started this year, he’s yet to beat his more decorated team-mate on any of them. As strong an attribute as his consistency is, Evans needs to arrest that form if he’s to prevent Ogier from calling himself a nine-time champion.
In many ways, the tale of WRC2 was a carbon copy of the main event. The fastest driver suffers a puncture early on, but overcomes that anyway to claim a statement victory.
Solberg even weighted this victory similarly to his stunning WRC win at Estonia a month ago (which seems extreme in my view), but the importance of it cannot be underplayed.
Along with Yohan Rossel, Gus Greensmith and Nikolay Gryazin, Paraguay was a must-win event for Solberg to seize the initiative in this compelling WRC2 title race. To do so after dropping to 10th in class and over a minute behind only strengthened the viewpoint that Solberg is now a cut above this level.
His eventual win unlocks the potential to clinch the title at Rally Chile next week. Assuming Solberg will automatically do so is naive as he was in the exact same situation last year and missed out, but even if he doesn’t, he’s got nothing else to prove a Rally2 car.
Up against some proper quality competition, at his best Solberg’s making them look average.
The positives from Rally del Paraguay were obvious: leading the rally on merit for four stages, containing the time loss with a puncture to just 13s and on for a career-best result before fortune had other plans.
But to actually stay positive through all of that required a steadfast mentality that Adrien Fourmaux has now expertly acquired.
Coming home with fourth was unjust considering the performance; to leave for home with nothing (after he was retired from the rally after the last stage) probably makes no difference to Fourmaux but it certainly wasn’t a reflection on what he proved.
Prior to Paraguay, my colleagues and I wondered whether somebody new would win a rally before the year is out over on Club DirtFish. What last weekend proved is Fourmaux surely cannot be far away.
The final classification may not say it, but Fourmaux was the best-performing Hyundai driver in Paraguay. On a rally that was brand-new to everyone, and therefore prior knowledge of stages can’t be used as an advantage for the more seasoned crews (like, say, Fourmaux’s team-mates), that was very interesting indeed.
Words:Luke Barry
Tags: Rally del Paraguay, Rally del Paraguay 2025, What we learned, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date September 1, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2025/09/014re254-PAJARI10PAR25sg302-780x520.jpg September 1, 2025
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