The eleventh round of the FIA World Rally Championship season was the first of two South American events on this year’s calendar. It therefore attracted a large number of local crews, who ultimately made up for more than two-thirds of the entry list. Among them, the story of the Zaldivar family stood out, with three of its members bringing their Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 cars home inside the top 10.
Current WRC2 championship leader Robert Virves arrived in Paraguay hoping for a strong result. Last year, he was running at the front before a puncture on the penultimate special stage knocked him to fifth place overall. This year, however, the rally effectively came to an end for Virves almost immediately after he crashed on the opening special stage.
Although he rejoined the event, he was unable to recover the approximately one-hour time loss and eventually finished outside the points-scoring positions. Nevertheless, he once again demonstrated his speed by setting the fastest time on a total of nine special stages. The best-placed Škoda crew in Paraguay was ultimately the Australian duo of Taylor Gill and Daniel Brkic, who brought the second Toksport WRT car, fielded for the first time, to fourth place.
Three additional Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 cars also finished inside the rally’s top ten, all of them driven by members of the local Zaldivar family. Fabrizio “Fau” Zaldivar and co-driver Marcelo Der Ohannesian held third position for a long period of the rally, but a crash on the nineteenth special stage (out of 22 in total) dropped them down the standings and into a battle with their family members.
The family showdown was ultimately won by Fabrizio’s older brother Miguel Zaldivar, who, together with co-driver Luis Allende, completed the rally in seventh place. Fabrizio finished ninth, while tenth place went to the father of both drivers, Miguel Ángel Zaldivar, and his co-driver Juan Sánchez.
The latter pairing also claimed victory in the WRC Masters Cup category for drivers aged over 50. Second place in the category was secured by Miguel Granados and Marc Martí, also competing in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2.
Following Rally Paraguay, the World Championship remains in South America and moves slightly further west to Chile, where crews will compete during the second weekend of September. The order at the top of the WRC2 standings remains unchanged, as Virves’ closest rivals, Korhonen and Suninen, did not start in Paraguay.
