Rally Paraguay: An excellent first day for Yohan Rossel

For this very first edition, the organizers had scheduled a loop of four special stages to be run twice. This represented 4 km of timed runs, and no one really knew what to expect.

Watching live footage of the first Rally1 cars flying over bumps and being battered by the terrain, the WRC2 crews quickly realized that this was not going to be a walk in the park. Oliver Solberg (Yaris), Yohan Rossel (C3), Fergus Greensmith (Fabia) and Nikolay Gryazin (Fabia) are the four contenders for the title and they were all present in Encarnacion for this 10^e round and the suspense was intense.

Rushing 2^e of WRC2, Rossel initially managed to stay in the right wagon, never dropping lower than 4^e rank during the morning. Maintaining an excellent pace in the afternoon, the PH-Sport rider did not win a special, but he still managed to limit the time lost to his rivals. Lying in ambush behind Diego Dominguez at the time of the service break, "Yo" took the lead from the start of the 2^e lap. Careful in the rough sections, controlling his takeoffs on the jumps, he finished the stage in first place with a 9''1 margin over Nikolay Gryazin and 10''3 over the local Dominguez who had dropped back after a mistake.

« We can be satisfied with our day, concluded the Frenchman. We gave it our all this morning and it's a very good thing to be leading. The car worked well. It was only when I wanted to change the settings after SS1 by lowering it that I found myself in difficulty. (laugh). It's more up to the rider to adapt to the grip. It's not easy, because at the end of the stages we have the feeling that we could do better, but the grip changes so much that we have to make do. It may not be obvious, but the terrain is very selective. I had the impression that my riding was more natural this afternoon. We may not have been at 100% like this morning, but it's a pace that I can use throughout the day. rallyOn Saturday, the ES will offer a different profile, but we will still have the opportunity to have a good stage. »

Gryazin not resigned

The Gard driver had every reason to be satisfied, because there was damage to his rivals. After a bad landing, Fergus Greensmith continued the race with a damaged car. He ended up losing his rear axle in SS4, providing spectacular images. We were the only ones who hadn't played a Joker yet... and now we have., regretted the Englishman. We will have to make sure that the upcoming races are perfect. » Having suffered a puncture in SS3, Solberg lost 1'12'' which he immediately tried to make up. After 8 SS, the Nordic driver was already back 6^e 53''6 behind Rossel. We are sticking to our schedule in terms of time taken, so we will continue at the same pace tomorrow. " he revealed at the end of the stage.

Rossel's closest rival is ultimately Gryazin. The Bulgarian will score points in the remaining five races and is under no obligation to win in Paraguay. He will nevertheless be a tough opponent for the French team, who will have to negotiate seven stages and 5 km.