Oliver Solberg calmly extended his lead at Rally Paraguay, while Thierry Neuville officially joined Takamoto Katsuta on the retirement list. More drama unfolded as Sebastien Ogier lost significant time on the second stage.
On another dramatic stage, Oliver Solberg was fastest through the 10-mile Nueva Alborada test, 2.2s quicker than Josh McErlean in his Ford Puma. Solberg's lead now stands at 7.1s over Hayden Paddon's Hyundai, who was third fastest, another tenth adrift.
“It was quite slippery, so I just tried to be careful,” said Solberg. “There's a very long stage coming now, so it's important to have the tires.”
However, attention was on Adrien Fourmaux, fifth fastest on the stage, whose time was likely to be adjusted after being hampered behind a limping Ogier. The world champion hit a bank and broke his Yaris's front-left suspension. He and co-driver Vincent Landais exited the car to change the tire but were slow through the rest of the stage.
Ogier, who dropped five minutes, was soon caught by Fourmaux, who had to give the Toyota a tap from behind to let him pass.
“It's not every day that you overtake a nine-time world champion in the stage,” smiled Fourmaux. “We were doing the 'press to pass' but I don't think he received it, so I did a small push to [say] 'Hey, I'm there' and then we pass. But for sure I needed to stay calm in the dust because some places I could not see. For the rest I had a good stage, I'm happy.”
Fourmaux was 7.6s down on Solberg, fourth overall, ahead of any possible adjustment. His teammate Neuville didn't even make it to the stage, retiring on the road section after picking up rear suspension damage on the opener.
McErlean's time put him fourth overall, 10s off Solberg's pace. He is 2s clear of M-Sport teammate Jon Armstrong, who matched Paddon's time. Sixth overall, 16.1s off the pace, is championship leader Elfyn Evans, who dropped another 6s to his pacesetting teammate.
“In terms of performance it's probably not ideal [to be first on the road] but in terms of puncture safety there's probably some benefits at least,” reported Evans after another safe run amid the chaos. Evans is 4.1s clear of teammate Sami Pajari who dropped time with a technical problem.
“We have an issue,” said Pajari. “It's a big shame, we need to have a look once again what we can do but we are basically on the limp mode all stage – very disappointing.”
WRC2 has been just as dramatic. Both Alejandro Cachon and championship leader Robert Virves crashed out on the opening stage, where Nikolay Gryazin and Fabrizio Zaldivar both suffered punctures. Zaldivar then had another flat on SS2. Diego Dominguez's Toyota currently leads the way by 3.3s from Yohan Rossel's Lancia.
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