Rally Paraguay - 1st Day - 2nd Loop: Pajari stays out of trouble and climbs the order as Hankook tyres continue falling apart

At the end of Friday afternoon, Sami Pajari is the new rally leader in Paraguay with Hayden Paddon and Elfyn Evans following him.

Sami Pajari took the lead in Paraguay after the end of Stage 7 where he was the fastest driver and stayed out of trouble when his rivals got punctures. In fact, Pajari passed McErlean on the classification for nine tenths of a second after Stage 6 as their gap was at 4,1 seconds in favor of the Irishman after SS5.

Hayden Paddon slipped behind the first Evans for 0,5 seconds after the end of Stage 6 as the Kiwi suffered from a front right puncture and lost 25,1 seconds in SS6. After Evans's puncture in Stage 7, Paddon and Pajari were the favorites for the rally lead, but bad luck stroke Paddon who got a rear left puncture in the final kilometers of SS7.

Elfyn Evans does the 1-3 for Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT and stole the lead from Paddon at the end of Stage 6, but he dropped two positions in Stage 7 due to a rear right puncture which was occured just 12Km. In fact, the bodywork was damaged and the tyre started losing pressure at 20Km into SS7.

Adrien Fourmaux is in fourth place overall after Stage 7 as he set the fastest time in SS5, SS6 and SS8. However, the Frenchman suffered from a rear double puncture in SS7 resulting in losing 49,6 seconds there.

Josh McErlean lost three places on Friday afternoon as initially dropped from second to third overall at the end of Stage 5 due to the fact that Evans was quicker than him. Afterwards, Pajari stole the third position from McErlean for 0,9 seconds as McErlean was ahead of Pajari for 4,1 seconds after SS5. Finally, the Irishman dropped more than two minutes in Stage 7 as he stopped to change a puncture just 13,8Km into SS7. However, he remains the best driver for M-Sport Ford after this chaotic day in Paraguay.

Diego Dominguez and Gus Greensmith are sixth and seventh overall respectively.

Oliver Solberg managed to gain some positions back and to be at the top eight as only he and Pajari were the Rally1 drivers who did not get a puncture on Friday afternoon.

Jon Armstrong handed a time penalty as he left the service area with a 14-minute delay and is outside the top ten while he stopped at 7,9Km into SS7 to change a puncture.

Watch below the stage times:

Watch below the overall classification after Stage 8:

Photo Credits: Toyota