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<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nPajari\u2019s victory also tightened the drivers\u2019 championship, leaving the 24-year-old just 20 points behind leader Elfyn Evans with three rounds remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAmazing,\u201d said Pajari. \u201cIt was not an easy rally, not easy for the drivers, but nevertheless not easy for the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBuilding such a reliable car is the key for the success. It\u2019s a really proud moment and I\u2019m really happy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pajari took control during a dramatic Friday and entered Sunday with 24.1sec in hand. His advantage briefly fell to 21.5sec on the opening stage before he responded and managed the remaining tests to secure victory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paddon\u2019s second place capped an impressive weekend on his first top-level WRC gravel start since 2018. The New Zealander led on Friday and remained Pajari\u2019s closest challenger thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis one feels like a proper podium,\u201d Paddon said. \u201cA lot of people had written us off, but a lot of people believed in me and we believed in ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis goes to show you never ever give up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adrien Fourmaux completed the podium after a remarkable fightback. The Frenchman had been 1min 51.3sec from the lead following Friday\u2019s troubles but charged through Saturday to arrive on the final morning just 3.3sec behind Evans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fourmaux moved ahead on Sunday\u2019s opening stage and ultimately beat the championship leader to third by 5.1sec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an incredible weekend,\u201d he said. \u201cTo be one minute 50 out of the lead on Friday night and come back to less than 50 seconds is just unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Evans finished fourth and retains the championship lead on 216 points, ahead of Pajari on 196 and fifth-placed Oliver Solberg on 175. Solberg rounded out his weekend by winning the Wolf Power Stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Josh McErlean brought his M-Sport Ford home sixth, while the penultimate stage was red-flagged and not restarted following an accident involving Takamoto Katsuta and Aaron Johnston. Both were transported to hospital for precautionary medical examinations and discharged a short time later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paraguay also celebrated a hugely popular home success as Diego Dom\u00ednguez and Rogelio Pe\u00f1ate won WRC2 and finished seventh overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dom\u00ednguez, who had received personal good-luck wishes from Paraguayan President Santiago Pe\u00f1a before the rally, finished 22.7sec clear of Gus Greensmith, with fellow Paraguayan Alejandro Galanti completing the WRC2 podium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnbelievable. This one is for all of them,\u201d said an emotional Dom\u00ednguez. \u201cEspecially for my dad, who helped me and pushed me to continue my career in rallying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The WRC remains in South America for Rally Chile Bio B\u00edo from 10 – 13 September, where the increasingly tight drivers\u2019 title battle will continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rally Classification:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
S Pajari \/ M Salminen FIN Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 3h 13m 28.5s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
H Paddon \/ J Kennard NZL Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +25.8s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Fourmaux \/ A Coria FRA Hyundai i20 N Rally1 +40.0s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
E Evans \/ S Martin GBR Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +45.1s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
O Solberg \/ E Edmondson SWE Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 +2m 57.0s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
J McErlean \/ E Treacy IRL Ford Puma Rally1 +4m 19.0s<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Drivers’ Championship (after round 11 of 14):<\/p>\n\n\n\n
E Evans 216pts<\/p>\n\n\n\n
S Pajari 196pts O Solberg 175pts<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cshow.php?s=3738284&v=105921&q=500445&r=1229872\")
\n<\/a>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WRC, Finn claims third consecutive victory, Paddon returns to the podium and Dom\u00ednguez delivers a dream home WRC2 win Sami Pajari and Marko Salminen made FIA World Rally Championship history on Sunday by winning ueno Rally del Paraguay and becoming the first crew whose first three WRC victories have come consecutively. The Finnish pair added […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70984,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70979\/revisions\/70984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/autoestrada.ch\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}