Quotes:
Akio Toyoda (TGR-WRT Chairman)
“On the tough and completely new roads of Paraguay, Seb and Vincent achieved a magnificent victory. Thank you for never giving up and continuing to push through such rough conditions and bad weather! Elfyn and Scott also secured second place, and I’m really glad they were able to maintain the championship lead!
Taking on the challenge of a rally on unfamiliar roads without even the chance for a pre-event test must have been incredibly tough, both in preparation and in the event itself. The efforts of every single team member led to this fantastic result. Thanks to that, this rally became a very meaningful one in our fight for the championship. Well done, team!
I also heard there were troubles with the team kitchen this time. I want to thank the kitchen crew for their creativity and effort in still providing us with delicious meals. Great food is a vital source of power when fighting for the championship. Honestly, without that amazing curry at Rally Japan, I wouldn’t feel ready to fight alongside you! Please make sure the repair of the kitchen is given top priority!
One more rally remains here in South America, and after that the fight continues in Europe, Japan, and the Middle East with big transfers in between. Please continue to put health first as we push through the last four rallies. Let’s make sure this season stays a joyful one with plenty of smiles!”
Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal)
“We have to be very happy with this fantastic one-two result for the team. It was such an up-and-down rally for everybody, with so many things going on even though it might have looked beforehand like it could be quite a simple rally. Even on the last day we had some rain to make things interesting. Seb did an amazing job this weekend, showing his experience as well as his speed, and Elfyn did very well at the end to come second. Our other drivers were not so lucky, but for the manufacturers’ championship it’s a good result. We have a very good lead now but in rallying things can change in an instant, so we need to stay focused until the end of the season.”
Elfyn Evans (Driver car 33)
“This has been a tough rally – a lot more difficult than everybody anticipated coming here – so it’s nice to have this result at the end. We needed to find some improvements for today and we managed to do so. I was happy and lucky to get away with a moment in the first stage this morning, but then our task wasn’t helped by the rain in the Power Stage. In the end though we managed to not only hold onto our position but also gain second place, so it’s not been too bad.”
Kalle Rovanperä (Driver car 69)
“Today we tried to get what we could. The conditions were tricky and changing for every driver, and I was lacking a bit of feeling. The rain coming after we’d driven the Power Stage probably helped us and in the end we got eight of the 10 points available on Sunday, so not bad. It’s disappointing what happened yesterday, but the championship is still close and we’ll go again in Chile. A massive thanks to all the fans in Paraguay: the atmosphere has been great.”
Sébastien Ogier (Driver car 17)
“I think we can be proud of our performance this weekend. After the time we lost on Friday, we never gave up and we kept pushing and enjoyed it a lot. On the final day the rain was changing the conditions very quickly. We were doing a good loop, increasing the lead and trying to take the maximum points. Unfortunately I got the rain in the Power Stage and we lost a lot of time and quite a few points from that, but luckily we had enough in hand to win and that’s the most important thing. I’m very happy to finally win in South America – which has never been my luckiest ground – and be on the top step in front of such amazing fans.”
Takamoto Katsuta (Driver car 18)
“It’s been a tough weekend for me after what happened on Friday. It’s disappointing because I think we had good pace, and after that it wasn’t easy because we had to open the road yesterday. There’s been a lot to learn about this rally and we’ve been trying a few things with the car setup. Today with the rain it wasn’t easy to know how the conditions would be, but it went fine. Even if the result was not what I wanted, this rally has been very nice and the fans have been nice, so I’ve enjoyed it a lot.”
Sami Pajari (Driver car 5)
“Thank you to the team who did a really good job this weekend. For me it’s always exciting to have a new event and we were able to have some proper pace on Friday when we were holding third position, which was really nice to see. It’s unfortunate what happened later, but we didn’t give up and tried to have good pace and enjoy the challenge. We could see we had strong performance here, so I’m looking forward to the next event.”
PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFICATION, RALLY DEL PARAGUAY
1 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) 3h00m06.6s
2 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +26.2s
3 Thierry Neuville/Martijn Wydaeghe (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +27.2s
4 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +30.6s
5 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +2m05.2s
6 Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +3m35.5s
7 Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +6m53.8s
8 Yohan Rossel/Arnaud Dunand (Citroën C3 Rally2) +7m16.3s
9 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +8m48.2s
10 Fabrizio Zaldivar/Marcelo Der Ohannesian (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +9m17.0s
16 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1) +22m10.9s
(Results as of 14:30 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 10:
1 Elfyn Evans 198 points
2 Kalle Rovanperä 191
3 Sébastien Ogier 189
4 Ott Tänak 180
5 Thierry Neuville 150
6 Takamoto Katsuta 88
7 Adrien Fourmaux 71
8 Oliver Solberg 58
9 Sami Pajari 56
10 Grégoire Munster 21
2025 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 10:
1 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 513 points
2 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 413
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 143
4 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRT2 96
What’s next?
The WRC stays in South America for Rally Chile on September 11-14. Held in the forests of the Bio Bío region overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the stages are technical but largely fast with a mix of smooth and abrasive gravel.
