Elfyn Evans saw his chances of victory in the Rally Finland fade away after a spectacular lap that left him out of the fight against Sebastien Ogier.
With Evans chasing the race leader, Ogier, the gap had narrowed from 16.3 to 11.6 seconds before the last stage of the morning, the SS14 Leustu, when he had an unfortunate incident.
Approaching the end of the stage, Evans misjudged a left turn, causing his GR Yaris to roll over. Although the vehicle landed on its wheels, it immediately got stuck in a ditch while trying to rejoin the road.
Several spectators, including his father Gwyndaf, rushed to help him, and after considerable effort, they managed to pull the car out of the mud. However, he lost valuable time of 1 minute and 49 seconds.
Evans arrived at service with the damaged car, and the Toyota team will work against the clock to repair it for the afternoon stages.
“Towards the end of the stage, where the organizers added an anti-cut block, there was a ditch on the outside. We had it marked in the notes, but I think I was too optimistic, and with such a deep ditch, I rolled the car,” Evans commented. “I’m just focusing on seeing if we can continue after the service.”
As a result of the incident, the Welsh driver fell to fifth place overall, two minutes from the leader, while Ogier consolidated his first position with a lead of 22.7 seconds over Toyota driver Sami Pajari. Oliver Solberg now stands out in third place at 1 minute and 1.5 seconds.
Ogier expressed his satisfaction at finishing a good morning of competition: “We kept our plan without taking excessive risks, but always driving fast. We knew Elfyn and Sami would keep pushing, and in the end, we managed to win a stage while Elfyn made a mistake, which has given us more margin.”
Upon hearing about Evans’ incident, Ogier stopped to see if he could help with any necessary repairs. “If I could have helped, I would have done it; we are teammates,” Ogier added.
Evans was not the only one who suffered an incident in SS14, as Martins Sesks from M-Sport, who was in fifth place, lost control of his Ford Puma, ending up overturned against the trees. He and his co-driver, Renars Francis, are fine, but the incident will likely mark the end of their rally.
The motorsport world remains on edge as the cars are recovered and prepared for the upcoming stages. Fans are watching events at WRC.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
SourceID: SRC_cc932b4ebbcba3896612337d7c0ebd605835f3e0