What was behind WRC Paraguay’s eventful Friday?

Four-time world champion Juha Kankkunen says he can’t remember a day as eventful as a series of tyre issues and crashes headlined Friday’s action at Rally Paraguay

WRC crews had predicted that Paraguay would be a rally of survival, and could be as extreme as Safari Rally Kenya with heavy rain set to arrive on Saturday and Sunday, rendering the clay/gravel stages incredibly slippery. Friday had been labelled as the easiest of the days given the dry conditions but drivers had described the stages as a lottery for punctures. Even highly experienced members of the rally service park were hard-pressed to remember another day like it.

“Not quite like this. There were so many punctures and so many cars off, and every stage there was something happening basically,” said Toyota deputy team principal Juha Kankkunen when asked if he could recall a day as eventful.

“Africa is normally like this. So I'm a bit surprised how challenging a day it's been today,” said Oliver Solberg.

While Kankkunen was shocked by the level of drama that unfolded, several WRC drivers weren’t surprised by the amount of tyre failures.

“Unfortunately not,” championship leader Elfyn Evans said when asked whether he was surprised by the number of tyre failures. “I don't think it's been this bad.”

Evans suffered two delaminations across the day with the second that struck his right-rear tyre in stage seven costing the Toyota driver the rally lead. The Welshman opted not to stop and change the wheel, which ultimately proved to be the right decision.

“It was a tough call. Obviously, there was a lot of discussion back and forth. [Co-driver] Scott [Martin] was for carrying on, I was for stopping.

“And I thought we made the wrong call numerous times during that 20km. But he's optimistic, and it was the right call actually in the end. So I have to apologise for doubting him.

'Like playing casino' with tyres

Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Hyundai Motorsport

Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, who suffered three tyre failures including a double rear puncture in stage seven, added: “I'm very happy with my driving and the pace I had in the stages. It's really a shame we have weak tyres and three delaminations. It's a shame when you puncture after hitting a rock, or if you have too much wear, you puncture. That makes sense. But when the tyres are brand new, it's a very big issue. It's like playing casino.”

M-Sport-Ford boss Richard Millener believes a number of factors are behind the rise in tyre failures.

“It has been more action than maybe we expected. I think a lot of it's down to the punctures and delamination that have caused all the drama. It's keeping everyone on their toes, and the itinerary is relentless. It's stage after stage. So it's a bit different to what we used to on a lot of rallies, but that is good,” Millener told Autosport/Motorsport.com.

“We would have hoped that this delamination problem would have gone away. Clearly, the hard bit is you can't test in all these different locations for exact conditions, and it's very hot and humid here this year, and we have very long stage kilometres. It is frustrating but at this point you have to stay calm and do a proper debrief." 

Hankook explains Paraguay tyre failures 

Elfyn Evans, Scott Martin, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT Toyota GR Yaris Rally1

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Hankook introduced an upgraded hard-compound gravel tyre for the Acropolis Rally earlier this year in an effort to reduce delaminations on rough gravel. At that rally, drivers agreed that there had been some improvement. The soft tyre in use this weekend made its debut at Safari Rally Kenya earlier this year.

When asked to explain the tyre failures Hankook’s Steven Cho said: “What we saw in the morning was much more wear than we expected, much more than last year. When you see lots of wear, it means that it's very abrasive and very rough. 

“Today's loops were really long. So with the temperature being hotter than it was last year, the way that the stages looked with the really compacted clay and the bedrock coming through. It was very hard for the tyre. Ourselves and the drivers and teams found the aggressiveness of the roads to be more than I think anybody expected.

"We'll have to look at that together tonight. Tomorrow should be a little bit easier, but still it's quite difficult. We know that Paraguay is difficult, and I think we're also learning Paraguay as well. Last year, of course, we were here, but the conditions were much different than last year and what everyone was expecting.

“The soft tyres we saw in the morning, I'm not surprised because they were all driven by wear. You can see that the rubber was all worn down and there wasn't anything left, and then from there, naturally, delamination comes. We'll have to take a closer look at what the hard tyres look like from this afternoon. I haven't actually heard yet. But if we see high wear rates, which I believe we will. I think the delamination will be from being worn down.

“My feeling is that the improvements we made have improved the hard tyre. The major issue here is really high tyre wear.”