At the end of Sunday, Sami Pajari grabs an important win for his championship fight in Paraguay with Hayden Paddon and Adrien Fourmaux following him on the classification.
Sami Pajari secures his third victory at World Rally Championship which is also his consecutive one after his latest success in Estonia and Finland.
Hayden Paddon achieved an important result for him and Hyundai with his top teo finish at Rally del Paraguay. Actually, this is his second podium finish at Rally1 era and he was not pushing today as his clear target was to avoid mistakes and to get to the stop control of Powerstage.
Adrien Fourmaux stole the third place from Elfyn Evans for 1,6 seconds at the end of Stage 18 as their gap was at 3,3 seconds in favor of the last one after the end of Stage 17 which was held on Saturday evening.
Elfyn Evans slipped behind Fourmaux on the classification at fourth place overall for 5,1 seconds and was not able to find an answer to his rival's pace since Saturday.
Oliver Solberg passed Josh McErlean for 6,3 seconds for the fifth place of Rally Paraguay at the end of Stage 17 and managed to build a safety net around his position as he set the fastest time in Stage 19 and 20. Last but not least, he was the fastest drive in Powerstage, but he scored nine points today despite the fact that he and Ogier were equal on SuperSunday standings.
Josh McErlean remains the best driver for M-Sport Ford driver as he finished sixth overall while he dropped 39,2 seconds in Stage 19 as the gear stick snapped just 1Km into SS19. However, he and Eoin Treacy managed to fix the gear stick for the following stages.
Sebastien Ogier and Thierry Neuville finished outside the top ten and gave a great fight for the SuperSunday points as they were equal in three splits in Stage 20. Moreover, Ogier was the fastest driver in Stage 18 and while he had a half spin and a small off road moment in Stage 22. On the other hand, Neuville's car was stuck in the mud and he did almost a 360-spin in Powerstage.
Jon Armstrong moved up to seventh position overall after the end of Stage 19 as he was behind Diego Dominguez at eighth for only one tenth of a second after Stage 18. He would do the 6-7 for M-Sport Ford under normal circumstances, but he was forced to retire on the road section before the start of Stage 20 as he ran wide and touched a bank in Stage 20 resulting in breaking the rear left suspension and driveshaft.
Takamoto Katsuta was starting first on the road today and was the fastest driver on the superspecial stage which was held on Saturday evening. However, he had a massive crash in Stage 21 as he rolled his Yaris into a telegraph pole after a two-wheel moment. The organizers of Rally Paraguay initially red flagged Stage 21 while Thierry Neuville was in the stage, but afterwards they decided to cancel it as Katsuta's car was blocking the road.
Watch below the stage times:
Watch below the overall classification after Rally Paraguay 2026:
Photo Credits: Toyota
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