Rally Paraguay leader Sebastien Ogier says the fight for victory is “not over” and “many things can still happen” following a stunning fight back from eighth.
The eight-time world champion has so far endured an eventful maiden visit to Paraguay, beginning with a puncture on Friday’s second stage that cost the Toyotas more than half a minute.
After dropping to eighth, Ogier reeled off eight stage wins from the following 13 tests to rocket from eighth into a 10.3s lead over Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux heading into Sunday’s final four stages. The run included a bold gamble to carry only one spare wheel across Saturday afternoon.
Ogier claimed the rally lead after World Rally Championship title rival and longtime leader Kalle Rovanpera suffered a costly front right puncture in stage 14. The Finn joined a long list of drivers to suffer tyre failures across the weekend, with championship leader Elfyn Evans the only Rally1 driver to avoid tyre trouble thus far.
While Ogier described the fightback as “pretty good”, the victory fight is not over given the spate of punctures and incidents that have occurred across Paraguay’s unknown stages and the threat of rain on Sunday.
Four stages, comprising 79.50 kilometres, await the crews on Sunday.
“Of course, it is a shame to see a team-mate having a puncture and it is never the way you want to take the lead but it looks like every front runner has had trouble except Elfyn basically,” said Ogier, who is eying a record equalling ninth world title.
“Everybody has had a puncture at some point and we see the one Kalle had is even more costly, it is not nice. But on our side since we had the puncture, we have pushed all the time and maximised everything, so I think we can be satisfied with that.
“It is a pretty good one [fightback] but it is not over. Tomorrow [Sunday] is the longest loop of the weekend and rain is maybe forecasted, and many things can still happen. It is nice to come back to where we are now but it is definitely not over.
“There is still a lot to do and the weather could really mix up everything.”
Fourmaux not giving up on fight for maiden win
Ogier’s newest rival Fourmaux is refusing to give up on the prospect of scoring a maiden WRC win in Paraguay.
The Frenchman led the rally until stage seven when he surrendered the lead to Rovanpera after picking up a pair of punctures in consecutive stages.
“To be fair, I’m quite happy how we managed the afternoon. I was quite conservative in some places and I was not taking risks with punctures, so we lost time in some places,” said Fourmaux, who battled a damper issue on Saturday afternoon.
“It is a compromise now between pushing and playing with luck and trying to do your best to get a good result without any trouble.
“I already had two punctures yesterday [Friday], so I really wanted to avoid it today. I think we have some issues with the car as it was behaving differently from yesterday, so we need to analyse. At the same we can be happy as we are still second.
“We need to catch 2.5s on Seb on every stage, it is a challenge but let’s see if it is possible.
“There are long stages and we will see if the rain comes. For us, we have to push and maybe Seb will have a puncture or a mistake, and 10 seconds is then nothing, but at the same time it can also be big.”
