Ott Tänak: Paraguay WRC rally new for all of us
The World Rally Championship season continues this weekend with Rally del Paraguay, making its full debut as the first of a South American double bill and to be followed by Rally Chile.
Five rallies remain this season, including Paraguay, and the title fight has essentially taken shape, with three Toyota men: Elfyn Evans (Wales), Kalle Rovanperä (Finland) and Sébastien Ogier (France) taking up the top three spots followed by Estonia's Ott Tänak, the first Hyundai driver in the rankings.
After a string of strong results through the summer, including a win in Greece back in late June, Tänak had briefly led the table, but a poorer showing in Rally Finland, where he placed 10th, saw him drop to fourth place.
Ahead of the new race, the Estonian told the DirtFish rally blog: "It's always exciting to go to brand-new events, but it's difficult to predict how the weekend will play out."
"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," Tänak went on.
Local Paraguayan WRC2 driver Fabrizio Zaldivar (Škoda) meanwhile said his home rally will be "overall quite fast." "We don't have mountains so it's quite flat. OK, we have some small crests but especially Friday the first stage has a few jumps, so we can say it's similar to Estonia due to the speed: it's flowing, straight, big jumps but without many corners," Zaldivar added.
The race comprises 19 stages over 333.18 kilometers, and while officially it is a gravel rally, crews must also deal with soft roads on some stages.
"On Saturday, the conditions are different and rather resemble Rally Portugal. For the first cars it may be quite tough cleaning the roads there," added Zaldivar. "Several drivers have asked me to explain this rally, but there simply isn't another one like it."
"Everyone starts from zero here, no one has pace-notes and you have to adapt quickly," Ogier noted.
The new WRC race is based on the long-running Rally Trans Itapúa, which has been held since 1981, based around the city of Encarnación.
Rally del Paraguay's shakedown stage starts just after 4 p.m. on Thursday Estonian time, continuing on the Friday from just after 3 p.m. The last stages on Friday and Saturday start a little before midnight Estonian time.
Four more races follow Paraguay in the 2025 season, ending with the Saudi Arabia rally in late November.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Kristjan Kallaste
