Evans holds third place at chaotic Rally Paraguay

Elfyn Evans is aiming to win his first World Rally Championship title [Getty Images] World Rally Championship leader Elfyn Evans sits in third place after a dramatic opening day of Rally Paraguay. The chaotic opening eight stages brought three retirements as all but one of the 10 Rally1 drivers had some form of issue on the rugged gravel roads. Toyota's Sami Pajari, Evans' closest challenger in the standings, was the sole driver to escape any drama and he is first by 11.9 seconds ahead of New Zealand's Hayden Paddon, who is driving a part-time season for Hyundai. Paddon was leading his first WRC event since 2018 but a puncture handed Evans the lead on stage six, but the Wales driver had a delamination of a Hankook tyre on the following run to promote Pajari into the lead. "The tyre situation is somehow not a surprise," Evans said. "We are in for a tough day tomorrow, a different set of challenges." Behind Evans, another two drivers to have tyre issues were Hyundai's Adrien Fourmaux, who is fourth, while M-Sport Ford's Josh McErlean is fifth after running as high as second place. The drama started on the first stage as Japan's Takamoto Katsuta and Northern Ireland co-driver Aaron Johnston crashed and were forced to retire for the day with heavy damage to their Toyota. The following stages led to the retirements of Thierry Neuville, who broke the suspension on his Hyundai on the second run, and Sebastien Ogier, whose makeshift repair on the suspension of his Toyota failed on stage three. The early carnage saw Motorsport Ireland's McErlean run as high as second place to continue his recent run of strong form, but a puncture on Friday's penultimate stage saw him end the opening day in fifth. His M-Sport team-mate Jon Armstrong also hit trouble with tyre and break issues, that saw him tumble down the order, while Toyota's Oliver Solberg also lost more than four minutes with a technical issue. "It's never a bad day in the sport when you're effectively fighting for the lead, and up until stage seven, we were doing just that," McErlean said. "But it's not been easy for anyone at all. It's a new day tomorrow, let's keep fighting." After winning the last two rallies in Estonia and his home event in Finland, Pajari is in a strong position to eat into Evans' 30-point advantage at the top but, as Friday's drama highlighted, nothing is guaranteed over the final 16 stages of the rally on Saturday and Sunday.