{"id":101107,"date":"2025-08-28T02:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T02:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/101107\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T02:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T02:30:11","slug":"preview-ueno-rally-del-paraguay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/101107\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: ueno Rally del Paraguay"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the crews, ueno Rally del Paraguay represents the ultimate level playing field – unknown roads around the city of Encarnaci\u00f3n where local knowledge counts for nothing and adaptability is everything.<\/p>\n

The timing couldn’t be more dramatic. Just three points separate championship leader Elfyn Evans from Toyota team-mate Kalle Rovanper\u00e4 after nine intense rounds. Evans reclaimed the lead following his runner-up finish at last month\u2019s Secto Rally Finland, where Rovanper\u00e4 claimed a dominant home victory.<\/p>\n

“After Rally Finland we’re back in the lead of the drivers’ championship, but the pack is incredibly close, so we can expect a big fight until the end of the season,” said Evans. “It’s always a big challenge to prepare for a new rally, and especially when it’s outside of Europe and we’re not able to test there beforehand.”<\/p>\n

Rovanper\u00e4 arrives with renewed confidence after his breakthrough Finland triumph, achieved by winning 15 of 18 stages at record-breaking average speeds.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“The result in Finland was amazing for us and for the team, and the points we got were really valuable for the championship,” said Rovanper\u00e4. “Paraguay will be a new rally for everyone and we don’t really know what to expect, so it’s not an easy one to prepare for, but hopefully it can suit us well.”<\/p>\n

Toyota Gazoo Racing has dominated 2025 with eight wins from nine rallies. Their five-strong GR Yaris Rally1 line-up includes Evans, Rovanper\u00e4, eight-time champion S\u00e9bastien Ogier, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari. Ogier sits third in the standings, just 13 points behind Evans. <\/p>\n

Hyundai Motorsport fields defending champion Thierry Neuville, 2019 title winner Ott T\u00e4nak – also 13 points off the lead – and Adrien Fourmaux in i20 N Rally1s, while M-Sport Ford completes the manufacturer line-up with Puma Rally1s for Gr\u00e9goire Munster and Josh McErlean.<\/p>\n

ueno Rally del Paraguay begins on Thursday and comprises 19 special stages totalling 333.18 kilometres before Sunday afternoon\u2019s finish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the crews, ueno Rally del Paraguay represents the ultimate level playing field – unknown roads around the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-101107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-motor","11":"tag-motor-sports","12":"tag-motosport","13":"tag-motosports","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}