Photo credit: www.autosport.com
Paraguay Set to Host Its First World Rally Championship Round
Organisers have unveiled the route for the inaugural World Rally Championship (WRC) event in Paraguay, scheduled to take place later this year.
This South American country will make its WRC debut by hosting round 10 of the 2025 season from August 28 to 31, following the signing of a multi-year agreement to bring this prestigious motorsport event to its shores.
The growth of a vibrant local rally community, which has produced notable WRC2 and Junior WRC competitors like Fabrizio Zaldivar and Diego Dominguez, has fueled Paraguay’s ambition to stage a WRC round.
As preparations advance for this highly anticipated event, President Santiago Pena has disclosed the planned itinerary for the participating crews.
The rally will be held on gravel surfaces, with Encarnacion—a city in the south-eastern part of Paraguay, near the border with Argentina—serving as the event’s base. Participants will cover a total of 951.59 kilometers, which includes 334.52 competitive kilometers across 19 stages.
The longest day of the rally will occur on Friday, featuring 140.90 kilometers of competitive driving, including two runs through the rally’s most extended stage, the 30-kilometer Yerbatera.
On Saturday, competitors will venture deeper into Paraguay’s interior, tackling 113.60 kilometers of stages, before concluding the rally with four tests on Sunday.
A glimpse of one of the stages in Paraguay
Photo by: WRC.com
This route announcement follows a successful test event conducted last September, which was attended by representatives from the WRC, Toyota, M-Sport-Ford, the FIA, and tire supplier Hankook for the 2025 season.
“We believe this event will introduce a distinct narrative to the WRC,” remarked WRC event director Simon Larkin after the test event last year.
This rally is among three new rounds that have been added to the expanded WRC calendar this year. It follows the recent promotion of the Canary Islands rally, taking place from April 24 to 27, from the European Rally Championship to the WRC status.
The season finale will be hosted in Saudi Arabia from November 27 to 30, marking a return of the WRC to the Middle East for the first time since 2011, through a 10-year agreement. Preparations are also underway for a 12-stage test event in Saudi Arabia from May 1 to 3, leading up to its WRC debut.
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www.autosport.com