A big surprise emerged from the Rally Paraguay shakedown. Takamoto Katsuta set the benchmark, but all eyes were on Hayden Paddon, who impressed on his Hyundai.
Paddon, competing on gravel for the first time this season, immediately showed he is now much more in his comfort zone. He shared second place with team-mates Thierry Neuville and Adrien Fourmaux, finishing just 1.6 seconds behind Katsuta's time at Carmen del Parana.
“I have much more confidence in this car on gravel. I’ll try to enjoy at least tomorrow while the conditions are dry. I’m really lucky to have this opportunity. We’ll do our best and try to push,” Paddon said.
Meanwhile, WRC leader Elfyn Evans was fifth, 1.7 seconds behind his Toyota team-mate Katsuta. Ford drivers Jon Armstrong and Josh McErlean followed closely.
Oliver Solberg and Sami Pajari took eighth and ninth for Toyota. Pajari, who has been in superb form with back-to-back wins in Estonia and Finland, completed only two runs and ended up 3.3 seconds off the pace. He noted the rain forecast for the weekend as a challenge.
“This rally is somewhat different from the previous two events. The results have been good and they have given me more confidence. But when I saw the weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday, you can’t have too much confidence to be able to push completely flat out,” Pajari said.
Rally Paraguay gets properly under way on Friday with eight special stages, concluding on Sunday. Will Paddon carry this form into the rally? Or will Evans strengthen his championship lead? We'll see.
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