Ott Tänak second in Rally Paraguay opening shakedown run
Estonia's Ott Tänak was second fastest for Hyundai in the initial shakedown outing at Rally del Paraguay on Thursday.
The Paraguay rally is making its WRC debut this year, and forms round 10 of the championship, part of a South American double bill to be followed by Rally Chile next month.
Tänak, who is fourth in the drivers' standings going into the race, finished the shakedown run only behind Japan's Takamoto Katsuta (Toyota), and only by 0.6 seconds at that.
Several drivers, including Tänak, described the surfaces as very varied and challenging.
"Based on the shakedown, it can be said that it seems much harder than we expected," he said. "Grip changes a lot, it is a difficult surface," the Estonian went on.
Katsuta's best time was 2:24.4, Tänak's 2:25.0, with Tänak's Hyundai teammate Thierry Neuville of Belgium and Finn Kalle Rovanperä (Toyota) joint third with a time of 2:25.4.
Tänak posted a time of 2:29.4 on the first run, 2:25.6 on the second, and put in his overall best of 2:25.0 on the third.
The rally proper, around the city of Encarnacion in the far south of the country, starts Friday at just after 3 p.m. Estonian time, with 19 stages covering 333 kilometers to follow between then and Sunday.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Siim Boikov
