Following Thursday evening’s ceremonial start in Encarnación, crews faced eight stages on Friday, with tyre problems and incidents affecting several of the leading Rally1 contenders and producing multiple changes at the head of the standings.

Pajari began the afternoon loop in fourth position, 33.2 seconds from the lead, before moving through the order during the second pass of the day’s stages.

The Toyota driver, who arrived in Paraguay following victories in Estonia and Finland, completed the day ahead of Paddon, with FIA WRC championship leader Elfyn Evans third, 56.3 seconds behind Pajari. Adrien Fourmaux holds fourth position.

Paddon had led the rally at the midday service with an advantage of 23.9 seconds after negotiating a difficult opening loop, but the gap began to reduce during the afternoon.

Fourmaux was fastest on the second pass of Cambyreta before setting the pace again on Nueva Alborada. Paddon suffered a front-right tyre delamination on the same stage, allowing Evans to move into the rally lead by 0.5 seconds.

The lead changed again on the second run through the 33.88-kilometre Yerbatera stage.

Evans suffered a right-rear tyre delamination and was forced to complete the stage on the rim, while Pajari recorded the fastest time, 0.1 seconds ahead of Toyota team-mate Oliver Solberg.

Paddon also reached the finish of the stage with a delaminated left-rear tyre, losing 20.8 seconds to Pajari but retaining second position.

“It was very clean for me,” Pajari explained. “I think it is lottery if you take the puncture or not. I need to be happy with how we did.

“It is still early in this rally and a lot of things have happened already.”

Pajari took a 12.4-second advantage into the Autódromo Alfredo Scheid super special and completed the stage 0.5 seconds behind Paddon to finish the day with an 11.9-second lead.

The Finn had also overcome a water leak and tyre delamination during the morning loop.

“After all the crazy things we are quite well in the standings, but it is only Friday done,” he said. “I think the days to come are the most demanding days. For the moment we are quite okay.”

Paddon remains firmly in contention on his first Rally1 gravel appearance in the FIA WRC since 2018. The Hyundai driver led a WRC event for the first time since Rally de Portugal in the same year and maintained second position despite tyre problems on both Nueva Alborada and Yerbatera during the afternoon.

“I think everyone’s had problems, so if we can drive out of two stages on punctures and still be within touching distance, we’ve been unlucky but lucky at the same time,” he said.

“Tough day, and the scary thing is I think this is going to be the easiest day of the rally.”

Evans is third, 44.4 seconds behind Paddon, after suffering tyre delaminations on both runs through Yerbatera. The Welshman had briefly taken the rally lead following SS6 before losing time on the afternoon pass.

Fourmaux holds fourth, 1min 51.3sec from the lead. The Frenchman won four of Friday’s eight stages but lost almost 90 seconds changing a tyre on the first run through Yerbatera before completing the afternoon pass with both rear tyres deflated.

“You know me, I will not give up,” he said. “I will push to the end and see where we can be.”

Josh McErlean completes the top five for M-Sport Ford. He had been second overall at midday and remained 9.8 seconds from the lead after SS6, before stopping to change a wheel on Yerbatera and losing more than two minutes.

Paraguay’s Diego Domínguez holds sixth overall and leads WRC2 by 39.4 seconds from Gus Greensmith in seventh.

Oliver Solberg is eighth, 3min 33.3sec behind Pajari. His opening day was disrupted when his engine stalled under braking on the first pass through Yerbatera and failed to restart. Spectators helped push-start the Toyota before a later puncture resulted in further time loss.

Several leading crews were also forced out of contention during the opening stages. Takamoto Katsuta rolled approximately two kilometres into SS1, while Thierry Neuville retired after damaging the left-rear suspension of his Hyundai on the same stage. Sébastien Ogier’s day ended on SS3 after a temporary suspension repair failed.

Saturday features a further 137.34 competitive kilometres across nine stages, including the new Bella Vista Sur test and an evening super special on the Encarnación Costanera. Heavy rain is forecast for the second full day of competition.