Ogier climbed into the rally lead on Saturday evening after his team-mate Kalle Rovanperä suffered a puncture. From that moment on, Ogier never relinquished first place, though things still became very tense on the rally-ending Power Stage.
Rain intensified during Ogier’s run, costing the Frenchman a great deal of time. In the end, however, he secured victory with a margin of over 26 seconds ahead of team-mate Elfyn Evans. Still, the heavy rain meant Ogier missed out on a significant haul of points, as he scored none from the Power Stage and only managed a single point from the Super Sunday classification.
Ogier’s points tally from the South American newcomer event was nevertheless the largest of the entire field, 26 points in total, but the loss of big points weighed heavily on the Frenchman.
“How unlucky can you be – I was the only one to get caught in that heavy rain. But that’s how it was. We’ll keep on winning and we’ll win the championship,” Ogier declared defiantly at the finish of the final stage.
On the podium Ogier’s defiance had subsided somewhat, though his confidence seemed unaffected by the setback.
“It’s been a tough one, but I think we can be very proud of the performance we did with Vincent (Landais) this weekend. It doesn’t really show in the points right now. That’s the only, let’s say, negative part, but it’s still a win – and that’s the most important. The fourth one this season,” said Ogier.
Friday had given little indication of an Ogier win. He suffered a puncture at the start of the rally and lost considerable time, falling almost 40 seconds behind the leader at one stage.
“Usually when you start a race like this, you think it’s going to be a tough one, because starting position plays a big role on the second day. So we knew we had to try to climb up some positions. But like we always do, we never gave up and kept pushing all the time, and we won kind of half of the stages this weekend. So that’s very positive on our side. We enjoyed it a lot,” Ogier summed up.
Ogier can now add a brand-new continent to his list of rally victories.
“South America has never really been my, let’s say, luckiest ground. The only rally I never won was Argentina back then. And then in Chile there was also sometimes some bad luck, like last year. So yeah, it’s good to finally be on the top step of the podium,” Ogier said.
Organising a WRC rally is always a massive undertaking, but Ogier felt Paraguay handled the task excellently.
“For the first one, you need to give a big applause to the organisation, up to the president, for everything they’ve done and all the effort they’ve made. It’s a big success for the first time here,” Ogier praised.
The World Rally Championship battle remains fiercely tight even after Paraguay. Ogier is now third in the standings on 189 points, two behind Rovanperä. Elfyn Evans continues to lead the championship, the Welshman now with 198 points.
There are still four rounds left in this season’s World Rally Championship. Next up is Rally Chile in mid-September.
