Toyota Gazoo Racing embark on South American adventure

Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team will be competing on unfamiliar roads in South America this week when the FIA World Rally Championship visits Paraguay for the first time (28-31 August).

The Rally del Paraguay will be the first of two consecutive rounds on South American gravel, with cars set to be transported over the Andes mountains to compete in Rally Chile just two weeks later.

Having completed an intense run of European rallies, including a perfect 1-2-3-4-5 result on home roads at Rally Finland earlier this month, TGR-WRT travel to South America with their full fleet of five GR YARIS Rally1 cars – back in their regular all-black livery after a sporting a lighter silver summer scheme on recent events.

With five rounds remaining in the 2025 season, the team have a lead of 87 points in the manufacturers’ championship, and three drivers leading the way in the title race. Elfyn Evans is back at the top of the drivers’ standings, with Kalle Rovanperä just three points behind after his home win at Rally Finland. Sébastien Ogier is 10 points further back in third, level with Hyundai driver Ott Tänak.

These three drivers will compete for manufacturers’ points, supported by Takamoto Katsuta – fresh from a strong second-place finish in Finland. Sami Pajari joins his team-mates in competing in all black for the next two rallies, even though his car remains entered under the TGR-WRT2 banner.

A strong pack of eight GR Yaris Rally2 cars are also entered in WRC2. Championship leader Oliver Solberg (Printsport) of Sweden is joined by Poland’s Kajetan Kajetanowicz (Rallylab Technology) and Bolivian Marco Bulacia (Delta Rally) while five cars are driven by Paraguayans: WRC2 regular Diego Domínguez Jr (Teo Martín Motorsport) joined by TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Paraguay duo Alejandro Galanti and Tiago Weiler, Gustavo Saba (Saba Competición) and Diego Domínguez Sr (DTA Rally Team).

The rally will be based in the south of Paraguay in the city of Encarnación, on the banks of the Paraná river and close to the border with Argentina. The route comprises roads that have previously featured in Rally Trans Itapúa competition but will be a trip into the unknown for the Rally1 teams and drivers. The stages are expected to be generally fast, with some more technical sections through dense forest, while the red earth surface should be smooth but soft – meaning that deep ruts could form for the second pass of stages.

After a ceremonial start on Thursday evening in Encarnación, the rally begins on Friday when 87.6 competitive miles will be driven across two loops of four stages. The loop ends with a super special stage at the Autodromo Alfredo Scheid, which will be run for a third and final time at the end of Saturday morning. Saturday’s route is otherwise formed by a trio of stages to the west each run twice, before Sunday’s finale features a pair of repeated stages to the north-east.

Team quotes

Juha Kankkunen (Deputy Team Principal): “Rally Finland was an incredible result for us and a strong performance by our drivers, and it’s giving the team confidence as we enter the last part of the season. In the drivers’ championship, it’s still very close and exciting, with only 13 points covering the top four drivers. In Elfyn, Kalle and Seb we have three very strong contenders. Hopefully Takamoto and Sami can continue with the confidence and speed they had in Finland too. Paraguay will be something new for everyone, and nobody really knows what to expect there. What we do know whenever we go to South America is the passion that there is for rallying there – this is something I always remember from competing myself in Argentina. Like Argentina, it seems like the stages could be quite fast, but on a new rally we always need to be prepared for some surprises.”

Elfyn Evans (driver car 33): “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 to the end of the season. We’re heading into another gravel rally, so it might not be easy to defend that lead when we need to open the road, but as usual we’ll be trying our best to get a good result. 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. We’ll need to wait for the recce to really see what the stages and the conditions are like and try to adapt the car to suit that as best as we can.”

Kalle Rovanperä (driver car 69): “The result in Finland was amazing for us and the team, and the points we gained were really valuable for the championship. Now we need to try to keep going like this with a good feeling and continue the fight to the end of the season. We are working hard with the team to try to keep the pace that we had in Finland for these next gravel rallies and I think we have a good idea now of how we can do that. 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.”

Sébastien Ogier (driver car 17): “Rally Finland was amazing for our team and good for the manufacturers’ championship, which has been our main target again this season. Also in the drivers’ championship, to have four drivers so close is great for the fans and it’s exciting to be part of that fight. We’ve been on the podium in every rally we’ve started and we’re going to try to keep that up in the next events if we can. I always enjoy the challenge of a new rally like this one in Paraguay where everybody will be starting from zero, writing pacenotes from scratch and needing to adapt as quickly as possible, and I’m looking forward to discovering it.”

Takamoto Katsuta (driver car 18): “Rally Finland was really nice for me; to have that speed and also take a good result with it. I will try to take this good feeling to Paraguay, even though we don’t know exactly what kind of rally we will face there. Going to a brand-new rally can always be tricky. I think everybody will need to switch their mindset a little bit following a pure flat-out rally like Finland. Now we have something more unknown, even if there might be some fast sections. We will see on the recce what it’s really like, and if the conditions look good, then maybe we can push for another good result.”

Sami Pajari (driver car 5): “Our feeling is good after the pace we had in Finland, and that gives us a good base to work from for the next two rallies – even though they will be a bit different in character. Paraguay will be new for everyone, and I like it when we have new stages or a new event: it feels a bit more equal when everyone starts from the same position. We don’t know so much about what the stages there will be like. From what I’ve heard and seen, it could be that the conditions are quite nice and not too rough, but we’ll find out more once we’re there.”

ENDS