JAPAN HEARTBREAK MEANS NO WIN FOR EVANS IN 2022
Elfyn Evans experienced his first winless season in the World championship since 2019 after late Rally Japan heartbreak.
Evans led the event from stage five, slipped behind Thierry Neuville on Saturday afternoon, but responded by winning Sunday’s opening stage to close to within 0.6s of his Belgian rival.
But a puncture on the next stage dropped him out of the victory fight and left him fifth at the finish, which meant he placed fourth in the final standings, his lowest finishing position in three campaigns.
The Welshman said:
“It’s been a tough season personally and we had a chance here and threw everything at it. Today started really well, we had a good rhythm in the car and things were working well.
But on the second stage we ran marginally wide and damaged the tyre. It was a big penalty for a small error but that’s the nature of the game. It’s really busy on the stages here so it was easily done.”
Evans had initially hinted a mistake from co-driver Scott Martin contributed to the puncture but made no further reference to the Cumbrian’s otherwise exemplary pacenote delivery later in the event.
“The notes were correct, but I didn’t get them as early as I needed to slow the car down in time,” he said following stage 16. “There was nothing I could do.”