Pajari extends win streak, makes WRC history with Rally Paraguay victory

Toyota’s Sami Pajari and co-driver Marko Salminen made FIA World Rally Championship history by winning Rally Paraguay and becoming the first crew whose first three WRC wins have come consecutively.

The Finnish pair (above) added first place in Paraguay to their breakthrough success in Estonia and home triumph in Finland, completing an extraordinary third straight win with a 25.8s victory over Hyundai part-timers Hayden Paddon and John Kennard.

Pajari’s victory also tightened the drivers’ championship battle considerably. Having trailed his Toyota Gazoo Racing teammate and WRC points leader Elfyn Evans by 30 points coming into Paraguay, 24-year-old Pajari now sits just 20 back with three rounds remaining.

“Amazing,” said Pajari after climbing out of his factory GR Yaris Rally1. “Big thanks to the team once again. It was not an easy rally; not easy for the drivers, but nevertheless not easy for the team. Building such a reliable car is the key for the success. It’s a really, really proud moment for me and I’m really, really happy.”

Pajari had taken control of the all-gravel rally during a chaotic Friday when tire problems and incidents reshuffled the leaderboard repeatedly. He entered Sunday’s final leg with 24.1s in hand over Paddon’s i20 N Rally1, and although his advantage briefly fell to 21.5s on the leg-opening, 6.38-mile Encarnacion stage, he refused to be drawn into unnecessary risks.

After that slight decrease in lead, Pajari responded by stretching the margin on the following two stages and arrived at the rally-ending Wolf Power Stage – a second pass through Encarnacion – with the history-making win firmly under control.

Paddon’s second place completed a remarkable weekend on his first top-level WRC gravel start since 2018. In only his fourth WRC start of the season (the other three coming on asphalt), the New Zealander briefly led the rally on Friday and remained Pajari’s closest challenger until the finish, delivering another significant result in his part-time return to the WRC’s top level with Hyundai.

“This one feels like a proper podium,” said Paddon, who’d finished third in a high-attrition Rally Croatia back in April. “A lot of people had written us off, but a lot of people believed in me and we believed in ourselves. This goes to show that you never ever give up.”

Hayden Paddon (above) was rally winner Sami Pajari’s closest rival through three tough days in Paraguay, the Hyundai part-timer even stealing some seconds on the final leg.

Behind the leading pair, Paddon’s full-season teammate Adrien Fourmaux completed one of the drives of the weekend to snatch third place from points leader Evans.

Fourmaux had been 1m51.3s from the lead after Friday’s tire troubles, but launched a relentless recovery drive on Saturday, reducing a deficit of more than 55s to Evans to just 3.3s overnight. The Frenchman moved ahead on Sunday’s opening stage, then kept the pressure on to finish 5.1s clear of Evans and 40.0s behind Pajari.

“It’s been an incredible weekend,” said Fourmaux. “To be [so far] out of the lead on Friday night and come back to less than fifty seconds is just unbelievable. It’s a shame for the [tire issues], but at the same time it was a very, very good fight for us to come back.”

Evans settled for fourth, but will be wary of Pajari’s points-building momentum as the series heads into its home stretch. Another Toyota factory driver, Oliver Solberg, is third in the standings, a not-insurmountable 41 points off the lead, after finishing fifth overall and winning the bonus points-paying Wolf Power Stage.

Solberg’s rally had been compromised as early as Friday when his GR Yaris’s engine stopped under braking while he was leading, requiring spectators to push-start him before a puncture compounded the time loss.

Josh McErlean brought his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 home sixth after an eventful final day during which a broken gear lever was ingeniously repaired using a 10mm spanner.

M-Sport Ford’s Josh McErlean held on to sixth overall after some last-leg engineering ingenuity to keep selecting gears in his Puma Rally1’s.

The penultimate stage, the 12.2-mile Artigas 2 test, was red-flagged and not restarted following an accident involving Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta and co-driver Aaron Johnston. Both were transported by helicopter to a local hospital for precautionary medical examinations.

In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, a home win for Diego Dominguez and co-driver Rogelio Penate completed a dream weekend in front of the wildly-enthusiastic Paraguayan fans. The Toyota GR Yaris Rally2-equipped duo finished seventh overall, some 22.7s clear of Gus Greensmith’s similar machine after leading the category since Friday.

Dominguez had carried the hopes of the host nation throughout the weekend, having received personal good-luck wishes from Paraguayan President Santiago Pena before the rally began.

“This one is for all of them,” an emotional Dominguez said at the finish. “Especially for my dad, who helped me, pushed me to get this and continue my career in rallying. I need to cry and get some beer urgently!”

Alejandro Galanti added another home success by completing the WRC2 podium behind Greensmith, with Australian Taylor Gill fourth.

Diego Dominguez’s WRC2 win makes for instant national hero status in Paraguay. The local ace controlled the class from the start in his GR Yaris Rally2.

Back to the overall standings, and Pajari’s victory leaves the drivers’ championship finely poised as the WRC remains in South America and heads directly to another all-gravel event, Rally Chile from Sept. 10-13.

Toyota Gazoo Racing’s bid for a record-equaling 10th WRC manufacturers’ crown will also continue in Chile after Hyundai’s double podium proved enough to stop the Japanese marque from joining legendary WRC marque Lancia in the double-digits club. Toyota leaves Paraguay on 554 points, 173 ahead of Hyundai, with the clinching of the title a seeming formality in the concluding leg of the WRC’s South American swing.

WRC Rally Paraguay, final positions after Sunday/Leg Three, SS22


1. Sami Pajari/Marko Salminen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 3h13m28.5s

2. Hayden Paddon/John Kennard (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +25.8s
3. 
Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +40.0s
4. 
Adrien Fourmaux/Alexandre Coria (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +45.1s

5. Oliver Solberg/Elliott Edmondson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +2m57.0s

6. Josh McErlean/Eoin Treacy (Ford Puma Rally1) +4m19.0s

7. Diego Dominguez/Rogelio Penate (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2 winner) +7m40.5s

8. Gus Greensmith/Jonas Andersson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +8m03.2s

9. Alejandro Galanti/Marcelo Yoyotoshi (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 – WRC2) +10m23.0s
10. Taylor Gill/Daniel Brkic (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +10m36.9s

WRC Drivers’ Championship after 11 of 14 rounds

1. Evans 216 points
2. Pajari 196
3. Solberg 175
4. Takamoto Katsuta 160
5. Fourmaux 149
6. Sebastien Ogier 148   

WRC Manufacturers’ Championship after 11 of 14 rounds

1. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT 554 points 
2. Hyundai Word Rally Team 381
3. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT2 210
4. M-Sport Ford 138 

• Catch WRC action from all rounds of the 2026 FIA World Rally Championship on RACER Network and the RACER+ App. Tune in on Monday, Aug. 31 at 9.00pm ET for full highlights from Rally Paraguay.
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