TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team has achieved a one-two finish in a demanding new challenge at the Rally del Paraguay, with Sébastien Ogier fighting back to claim victory and Elfyn Evans taking second place in a dramatic final stage.
The FIA World Rally Championship’s first ever visit to the central South American country was a voyage into the unknown for the teams and drivers. As well as a warm welcome from the passionate local fans, they would discover demanding gravel stages formed by fast roads but with a red clay surface that offered changeable grip levels. Significant bumps and sharp rocks would test cars and tyres.
Ogier and co-driver Vincent Landais would receive an early setback when they sustained tyre damage in the second stage of the rally on Friday, leaving them 36 seconds off the lead. Thereafter they were the fastest crew, winning nine of the 19 stages and working their way back up from eighth to second place by Saturday afternoon. Ogier then picked up the lead when team-mate Kalle Rovanperä suffered a costly tyre deflation, dropping him out of the fight.
Rain brought an extra challenge for the final day on Sunday, making the stages even more slippery, but Ogier used all his experience to open up his lead to almost 40s. That proved to be a valuable margin when he was hit by the worst of the rain that returned for the rally-ending Power Stage, and he was able to secure victory by 26.2s.
It is Ogier’s fourth win from seven starts this season, the 65th of his WRC career and his first ever in South America.
The team’s ninth win of the campaign is also the 102nd victory achieved by Toyota in the history of the WRC, drawing it level with Citroën for the most wins by any manufacturer.
Evans and co-driver Scott Martin made an excellent return to the podium after a challenging run of rallies where they have been sweeping gravel roads. They managed to avoid many of the issues experienced by others, and while they briefly slid off the road on Sunday’s slippery first stage, they later regained third place in SS18 and then took second on the final stage despite being hit by heavy rain mid-way through.
With third in Super Sunday and fourth in the Power Stage, Evans increases his drivers’ championship lead from three to seven points over Rovanperä and nine points over Ogier.
After slipping to sixth following the disappointment of SS14, Rovanperä and co-driver Jonne Halttunen took second on Super Sunday and in the Power Stage to salvage valuable points, and finished fifth overall.
TGR-WRT now has a lead of exactly 100 points in the manufacturers’ championship with four rallies remaining.
Sami Pajari finished sixth overall in his TGR-WRT2 entry having been fighting for a podium position with a strong performance on Friday before having to stop and change a wheel and tyre. Takamoto Katsuta stopped with damage in the same stage on Friday but restarted on Saturday and was fifth in the Power Stage and sixth on Super Sunday.
Oliver Solberg produced an impressive fightback of his own to win WRC2 in his Printsport-run GR Yaris Rally2. After a slow puncture in SS3 left him over a minute behind, he and co-driver Elliott Edmondson won 12 consecutive stages before reclaiming the lead on Sunday’s opening test. Solberg now leads the WRC2 standings by 11 points with one more scoring opportunity remaining.
Quotes:
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“We have to be very happy with this fantastic one-two result for the team. It was such an up-and-down rally for everybody, with so many things going on even though it might have looked beforehand like it could be quite a simple rally. Even on the last day we had some rain to make things interesting. Seb did an amazing job this weekend, showing his experience as well as his speed, and Elfyn did very well at the end to come second. Our other drivers were not so lucky, but for the manufacturers’ championship it’s a good result. We have a very good lead now but in rallying things can change in an instant, so we need to stay focused until the end of the season.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“This has been a tough rally – a lot more difficult than everybody anticipated coming here – so it’s nice to have this result at the end. We needed to find some improvements for today and we managed to do so. I was happy and lucky to get away with a moment in the first stage this morning, but then our task wasn’t helped by the rain in the Power Stage. In the end though we managed to not only hold onto our position but also gain second place, so it’s not been too bad.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“Today we tried to get what we could. The conditions were tricky and changing for every driver, and I was lacking a bit of feeling. The rain coming after we’d driven the Power Stage probably helped us and in the end we got eight of the 10 points available on Sunday, so not bad. It’s disappointing what happened yesterday, but the championship is still close and we’ll go again in Chile. A massive thanks to all the fans in Paraguay: the atmosphere has been great.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“I think we can be proud of our performance this weekend. After the time we lost on Friday, we never gave up and we kept pushing and enjoyed it a lot. On the final day the rain was changing the conditions very quickly. We were doing a good loop, increasing the lead and trying to take the maximum points. Unfortunately I got the rain in the Power Stage and we lost a lot of time and quite a few points from that, but luckily we had enough in hand to win and that’s the most important thing. I’m very happy to finally win in South America – which has never been my luckiest ground – and be on the top step in front of such amazing fans.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It’s been a tough weekend for me after what happened on Friday. It’s disappointing because I think we had good pace, and after that it wasn’t easy because we had to open the road yesterday. There’s been a lot to learn about this rally and we’ve been trying a few things with the car setup. Today with the rain it wasn’t easy to know how the conditions would be, but it went fine. Even if the result was not what I wanted, this rally has been very nice and the fans have been nice, so I’ve enjoyed it a lot.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“Thank you to the team who did a really good job this weekend. For me it’s always exciting to have a new event and we were able to have some proper pace on Friday when we were holding third position, which was really nice to see. It’s unfortunate what happened later, but we didn’t give up and tried to have good pace and enjoy the challenge. We could see we had strong performance here, so I’m looking forward to the next event.”
PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLY DEL PARAGUAY
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 3h00m06.6s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +26.2s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +27.2s
4 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +30.6s
5 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m05.2s
6 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +3m35.5s
7 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +6m53.8s
8 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroën C3 Rally2) +7m16.3s
9 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m48.2s
10 Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9m17.0s
16 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +22m10.9s
(Results as of 14:30 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 10:
1 Elfyn Evans 198 points
2 Kalle Rovanperä 191
3 Sébastien Ogier 189
4 Ott Tänak 180
5 Thierry Neuville 150
6 Takamoto Katsuta 88
7 Adrien Fourmaux 71
8 Oliver Solberg 58
9 Sami Pajari 56
10 Grégoire Munster 21
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 10:
1 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 513 points
2 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 413
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 143
4 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT2 96
What’s next?
The WRC stays in South America for Rally Chile on September 11-14. Held in the forests of the Bio Bío region overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the stages are technical but largely fast with a mix of smooth and abrasive gravel.
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