Evans above! Elfyn roars to rally win
WELSH rallying star Elfyn Evans won the Vodafone Rally de Portugal on Sunday afternoon to claim his fourth career victory in the FIA World Rally Championship and underline his right to a place in the rallying firmament.
He put behind him the disappointment of defeat by fractions of a second at the previous round in Croatia to climb to second in the drivers’ standings. He and codriver Scott Martin sit two points behind Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sébastien Ogier.
Evans, driving a Yaris World Rally Car, grabbed top spot from Ott Tänak when the Estonian retired his Hyundai i20 on Saturday afternoon with smashed suspension.
The Welshman said on Saturday evening: “It’s generally been a positive day. The afternoon went well and we seemed to have a better feeling with the car on second pass. We had mixed tyres which actually helped the Yaris WRC to turn in.
“We had another good run through Amarante and again I just tried to be neat and tidy through there, which seemed to work. Tomorrow is a tricky day with technical stages.”
He was in no mood to risk another setback to his title bid and charged through Sunday morning’s opening speed test to double his overnight 10.7-second advantage over Dani Sordo.
He eased through the remaining four stages to win by 28.3 seconds.
“We weren’t maybe the fastest crew this weekend but still we had really good pace, kept out of trouble and did enough to keep Dani behind today,” said a jubilant Evans. “This comes at a really good time for our championship challenge as we move into some tough gravel rallies.”
Sordo led the three-day gravel fixture for much of Friday’s opening leg in his i20 until he stalled his engine and dropped behind Tänak, but on a rally in which managing the use of Pirelli’s hard and soft compound tyres was crucial, he was frequently uncomfortable with his choices.
Nonetheless, the Spaniard reduced Evans’s lead in Saturday evening’s closing test but had no answer to the Welshman’s Sunday morning riposte.
Ogier started the Matosinhosbased event, round four of 12 in this year’s WRC, at the top of the championship.
First in the running order on sandy roads that favoured cars starting later in cleaner and more grippier conditions for the tyres was a major hurdle for the Frenchman, though shrewd tyre selection by the multiple champion and problems for those ahead of him allowed Ogier to steadily climb the order and finish
third, almost a minute behind Sordo.
Toyota’s double podium extended its manufacturers’ championship lead to 37 points.
Takamoto Katsuta scored a career-best fourth place in a third Yaris, the Japanese driver trading places with Ogier during Saturday’s gruelling leg in the Cabreira Mountains, before measuring his pace through Sunday’s five-stage finale.
M-sport Ford duo Gus Greensmith and Adrien Fourmaux were fifth and sixth in Fiestas, though both dropped time with throttle problems and Fourmaux lost more time in a first-day spin, but fifth equalled Greensmith’s best WRC performance.
Tänak was joined on the retirement list by Thierry Neuville, who tipped his i20 on its side and broke the rear suspension. Both restarted and gained some consolation by taking first and second-placed bonus points on the Fafe Wolf Power Stage.
At the finish Evans said: “I am really happy to take the victory. We had a decent weekend, we were consistent with no mistakes.
“The fight with Dani was pretty close and we had a big push this morning to build a gap and stay ahead. Thanks to Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC – another double podium and another very strong team result.”
The Welsh driver now holds second place in the WRC title battle, just two points down on team mate Ogier. WRC teams
and rally crews now face a quick turnaround before round five on the gravel roads of the Mediterranean island of Sardinia.
Rally Italia Sardegna is based in Olbia from June 3 to 6.
WELSH racing driver Seb Morris added another distinction to an already impressive racing record, making his debut in the prestigious 24Hour Series at Germany’s Hockenheimring last weekend after agreeing a deal with top team Leipert Motorsport to be the pro driver in the squad’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 entry.
Forming part of a three-event 24H Series deal struck with the German team, the Hankook 12 Hours of Hockenheimring was Morris’s second race outing of 2021.
His first at the Nurburgringnordschleife last month earned a second place in the Walkenhorst Motorsport team BMW M2, and he was delighted to be back on track.
Well known for his successful time with Bentley, with whom the North Walian won the British GT Championship in 2017 and went on to race as a factory driver in 2019 and 2020, Morris does have past experience of Lamborghini power – at the wheel at Silverstone in 2017, driving the team’s Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe entry, and later that year he delivered a peerless showing on his maiden outing in the International GT Open at Monza in Italy by taking victory on his debut in a Lamborghini
Gallardo.
At Hockenheim, Greenlight Sports Management racer Morris teamed up in Leipert’s Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO with Australia’s Brendon Leitch, American driver Tyler Cooke and German racer Fidel Leib.
Morris said: “I’m absolutely delighted to have agreed the deal with Leipert Motorsport, a fantastic team with a very successful track record over the years in numerous endurance championships.
“Racing in GT World Challenge Europe over the last few years, and British GT before that, I’ve obviously seen first-hand just how competitive a package the Lamborghini Huracan is.
“I was really looking forward to getting behind the wheel on Friday at Hockenheim and working closely with the engineers in my role as the pro driver to deliver a great car and hopefully challenge for a big result.”
The race was in two parts, the 5-litre V10 supercar finishing third in both races, just two laps down on the winners.
Morris added: “This was my first time back at Hockenheim since 2014 when I raced in Formula Renault, so it was great to be back there on the podium.”
In addition to the Hankook 12H Hockenheimring, Morris also has two huge twice-roundthe-clock encounters – the Hankook 24H Portimao in midjuly in Portugal and the Hankook 24H Sebring in the USA in November.