Kalle Rovanperä was the unlucky warrior of the team after suffering a puncture on the day’s penultimate special stage. Toyota’s French star Sébastien Ogier, however, has risen to the lead of the rally with a 10.3-second margin over Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux.
In third place is Toyota’s Elfyn Evans, whose gap to Hyundai’s Ott Tänak in fourth is only 2.5 seconds.
“The day was a bit of ups and downs for us. We are still in the fight, though. Kalle hit something and suffered a puncture. Tomorrow he will, however, be fighting for ten points and will surely do his best to get them”, Kankkunen said.
Like Rovanperä, Ogier suffered a puncture on Friday and Tänak on Saturday. Sami Pajari’s tyre also mysteriously deflated on Friday.
“I don’t know what happened with the punctures. The boys said they didn’t hit anything. The tyre just broke into pieces. Hankook can surely respond better, but something is wrong there,” Kankkunen noted.
“The speeds are so high and there are so many long straights that the tyres just break into pieces. Once you lose the tread, the game is over.”
The Rally Paraguay still has four special stages to be run on Sunday.
