ELFYN FLIES BACK INTO THE WRC TITLE FIGHT WITH RALLY PORTUGAL VICTORY
Toyota Gazoo Racing man ramps up his chase for his maiden global crown
Elfyn Evans battled his way firmly back into title contention with his first victory of the World
Rally Championship season in Portugal last Sunday.
With Scott Martin co-driving,
Evans took the lead when Ott Tanak dropped out with broken suspension on the penultimate stage of leg two.
Despite Tanak’s Hyundai team-mate Dani Sordo narrowing his advantage to 10s starting the deciding day, Welshman Evans put his fourth win at WRC level beyond doubt by winning three of five event-closing stages.
Sordo admitted Evans had been too fast to catch and the Toyota driver is now two points behind his World champion team-mate Sebastien Ogier heading to next week’s Rally Italy.
Gus Greensmith produced arguably the best performance of his WRC career to date with six top-three stage times for the M-Sport Ford World Rally Team. He finished fifth overall, while his fellow Mancunian Chris Ingram scored a first WRC3 podium.
Toyota’s Elfyn Evans heads to Rally Italy next week two points beneath the WRC title summit after rival squad Hyundai squandered a giltedged opportunity to take a podium lockout in Portugal.
Hyundai trio Thierry Neuville, Dani Sordo and Ott Tanak all had spells either leading or in the top two on the first gravel round of the season. But only Sordo completed the full quota of 20 stages, as Neuville and Tanak faltered when well placed.
Belgian Neuville was 8.2s behind Sordo in second when he rolled on the opening day’s seventh stage. Then, with an advantage of 22.4s over Evans starting the penultimate stage of day two, Estonian Tanak’s bid to become the first two-time winner of the season came unstuck when he stopped with damaged right-rear suspension.
Sordo gave Hyundai hope by closing to within 10.7s of Evans starting the final day, but the Spaniard – on his first start since January’s Monte Carlo Rally and his first with new co-driver Borja Rozada – had no answer to the Welshman, who opened up a 26.2s margin prior to the powerstage following a trio of fastest times on Sunday morning.
While Evans and co-driver Scott Martin celebrated after coming out on top by 28.3s and landing a bonus point for going fifth quickest, Hyundai team chief Andrea Adamo reckoned his crestfallen outfit “deserved more”.
The Italian said: “The opportunities were there for a strong team result but for different reasons we have not been able to do what we were capable of achieving. Now, we have to try and reinflate ourselves before the next event.
“All of my people have worked so hard in these past months, dealing with strict limitations and having to accept difficult circumstances, they deserved more from this rally. We have shown we have car performance so now we have to deliver results.”
Hyundai’s third defeat of 2021 to Toyota team – led by rookie boss and ex-WRC driver JariMatti Latvala – means it trails the Japanese firm by 37 points in the makes’title chase. Neuville is the best-placed Hyundai driver in third, 20 points down on Evans and 22 adrift of Evans’team-mate Sebastien Ogier, who finished third in Portugal behind Sordo.