Sami Pajari once again showed his composure at the top of the Rally Paraguay standings. On SS19 held Sunday morning, the Toyota driver finished sixth, but most importantly, he extended his lead over closest rival Hayden Paddon.
Pajari was 1.7 seconds faster than Paddon on the 19.6km Artigas stage, enough to recover the time lost on the previous test. "Everything looks good at the moment. You never know when the rain will come, but hopefully not yet," said Pajari, who now leads by 23.2 seconds.
Meanwhile, drama unfolded behind him. Adrien Fourmaux impressed by setting the second-fastest time on SS19, just 1.3 seconds behind stage winner Oliver Solberg. He managed to close the gap to Elfyn Evans to just 3.1 seconds in the overall standings, after Evans finished 1.5 seconds behind him.
"It's not easy. I have to push because the gap is small. On the other hand, I also want to reach the finish," said Fourmaux, who now sits third, just 49.5 seconds behind the leader.
The battle for fifth place also heated up. Josh Armstrong's hopes suffered a major blow when his gear lever broke. Instead of putting pressure on Solberg, he lost valuable time and is now nearly a minute behind the Swede.
In the Super Sunday standings, Sebastien Ogier still leads, but Thierry Neuville is only 0.5 seconds behind. Solberg's stage win lifted him to third, 3.7 seconds off the lead, followed by Fourmaux and Takamoto Katsuta.
Three special stages remain in Paraguay on Sunday afternoon. Will Pajari maintain his advantage? Or can Paddon and Fourmaux pull off a surprise in the final kilometers?
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