Rally del Paraguay 2025 Preview

Time for a completely new challenge for the crews and teams as the championship goes across the south Atlantic for the first in a double header in South America. This will be the first running of a round in Paraguay. This gives the crews a big challenge with new pace notes for the stages and hopes that the pre-event testing in Europe has given the teams the correct base setup as well. Don’t forget that there is no testing for the Rally1 crews outside of Europe.

Let’s take a look at the stages and hear from the crews. There will be 333km’s over nineteen stages. The longest day will be Friday with almost 141km’s over eight stages with a service in the middle. Saturday has almost 113km’s over seven stages with includes a third run in a super special which is run twice on Friday. Sunday is as usual the shortest day with just under 80km’s over four stages.

 

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT

Elfyn Evans

“After Rally Finland we’re back in the lead of the drivers’ championship, but the pack is incredibly close, so we can expect a big fight until the end of the season. We’re heading into another gravel rally in Paraguay, so it might not be easy to defend that lead when we need to open the road, but like usual we’ll be trying our best to get a good result. It’s always a big challenge to prepare for a new rally, and especially when it’s outside of Europe and we’re not able to test there beforehand. We’ll need to wait for the recce to really see what the stages and the conditions are like and try to adapt the car to suit that as best as we can.”

Kalle Rovanperä

“The result in Finland was amazing for us and for the team, and the points we got were really valuable for the championship. Now we need to try to keep going like this with a good feeling and continue the fight until the end of the season. We are working hard with the team to try and keep the pace that we had in Finland for these next gravel rallies, and I think we have a good idea now as to how we can be fast. Paraguay will be a new rally for everyone, and we don’t really know what to expect, so it’s not an easy one to prepare for, but hopefully it can suit us well.”

 

Sébastien Ogier

“Rally Finland was amazing for our team and good for the manufacturers’ championship, which has been our main target again this season. Also in the drivers’ championship, to have four drivers so close is great for the fans and it’s exciting to be part of that fight. We’ve been on the podium in every rally we’ve started and we’re going to try to keep that up in the next events if we can. I always enjoy the challenge of a new rally like this one in Paraguay where everybody will be starting from zero, writing new pacenotes from scratch and needing to adapt as quickly as possible, and I’m looking forward to discovering it.”

 

Takamoto Katsuta

“Rally Finland was really nice for me; to have that speed and also take a good result with it. I will try to take this good feeling to Paraguay, even though we don’t know exactly what kind of rally we will face there. Going to a brand-new rally can always be tricky. I think everybody will need to switch their mindset a little bit following a pure flat-out rally like Finland. Now we have something more unknown, even if there might be some fast sections. We will see on the recce what it’s really like, and if the conditions look nice, then maybe we can push for another good result.”

 

Sami Pajari

“Our feeling is good after the pace we had in Finland, and that gives us a good base to work from for the next two rallies – even though they will be a bit different in character. Paraguay will be completely new for everyone, and I like it when we have new stages or a completely new event: it feels a bit more equal when everyone starts from the same position. We don’t know so much about what the stages there will be like. From what I’ve heard and seen, it could be that the conditions are quite nice and not too rough, but we’ll find out more once we’re there.”

 

 

Hyundai Motorsport

Ott Tänak

“It’s always exciting to go to brand-new events, but it’s difficult to predict how the weekend will play out. It’s a great challenge for all of us in the team, and if we can pull off a good result, it’s always rewarding. We go to Rally del Paraguay with a blank sheet of paper, so the recce is the first time we can really try to understand what the rally will be like. It’s a lot of work with all the new notes, car setup and preparation. Everyone in the team will always throw themselves into whatever is needed, particularly when it’s a level playing field for everyone. Good points are essential for us in Paraguay, and we will push for that result.”

Thierry Neuville

“South America has always been a great place for the WRC to visit, and we all hope to see lots of fans on the stages in Paraguay. We don’t have any testing for the event, so we have been studying the footage shared by the event organisers and speaking to locals to get a feel of the stages. We can really start to refine the car setup after the recce when we know a bit more about the grip levels and our pacenotes. It’s a huge unknown for all of us, but a new challenge is exciting for us and the championship. We need to optimise the weekend to ensure we get some strong points.”

 

Adrien Fourmaux

“We don’t know too much about what to expect at Rally del Paraguay, but I do know that the fans are really committed. In preparation, we’ve already started to analyse some of the stages through videos to maximise the information that we can get, and when we get to Paraguay we will get some more information from the locals. Across South America, the surfaces are really interchangeable, so the profile is unknown to all of us. Our pacenotes start as a blank piece of paper, and we can only really perfect them after we have been on the stages. I’m usually more competitive on new rallies, and I know that we can target the podium in Paraguay.”

 

M-Sport Ford WRT

Grégoire Munster

“I’m really looking forward to going to Paraguay. It’s a brand-new event for everyone, which is always an exciting challenge. From the stage footage we’ve seen, the surface looks quite slippery in places – almost like Kenya – but it’s faster and more straightforward overall. In the mountain sections there are also some steep inclines, which will add to the challenge. It looks like a great new addition to the Championship because it’s so different from what we already have on the calendar. I can’t wait to discover the country and enjoy tackling these new stages.”

Josh McErlean

“Paraguay is a completely new event for all of us, so we’re heading in with a clean slate. That can be a positive because it means everyone starts from the same place. From what we’ve seen, the surface looks mostly clay with some fast sections and long straights, and in parts it even has a bit of a Safari feel. It’ll also be my first time competing in South America, which is really exciting. With Chile coming up straight afterwards, it’s a big few weeks with plenty to learn, but we’ll take it all step by step and make the most of this South American adventure.”

 

Oliver Solberg (WRC2)

“It’s exciting,” smiled Oliver. “Whenever we’re going somewhere new, there’s always something special about it. Nobody really knows what’s coming for the stages, the weather, anything. It’s cool. I’m really looking forward to it.

 

“Any time we get to go to South America is special – motorsport and rallying, for sure, runs through the veins in that part of the world. Argentina is just next door, and everybody knows the stories about the amazing number of people who go to spectate there. I’m sure Paraguay will be really the same.

“We had the chance to see the president from Paraguay [President Santiago Peña] on his visit to the last round in Finland. He was a really cool guy who had a lot of passion for the sport of rallying and for bringing it to his country. This is the kind of thing we need in the WRC.”

 

Much as they love the travel, the people and the place, Oliver and co-driver Elliott Edmondson know they’re there for one reason with the Printsport-run Toyota GR Yaris Rally2.

 

“Points and hopefully a win,” said this year’s Rally Estonia winner. “This reason is not changing – it’s why we go to every round. Finland didn’t deliver what we wanted, so we have to go hard and fast to chase the big points for the WRC2 title next week.”

 

Talking about the terrain which sits in wait, Elliott added: “Like Oliver said, it’s always interesting to go to a new event – and this one is completely new. We’ve been doing all the research we can, but the pre-event recce is going to be an interesting one where we discover plenty about the route and the roads.”

 

 

Summary

This will be a significant rally this year in the battle over the driver and co-drivers world championship title. Elfyn and Scott will open the road on Friday as they lead the championship again from their teammates, Kalle and Jonne and Seb and Vincent.

Top placed Hyundai crew Ott and Martin are thirteen points from the championship leaders and fourth on the road, whilst Thierry and Martijn are fifth and fifty-one points away and will need a top result this weekend and for others ahead to have a very poor result to bring them back into the championship battle.

 

For M-Sport their two crews will have a hope that good road position on Friday and taking experiences from sandy conditions to hopefully get a strong result.