Elfyn Evans has seen his chances in the World Rally Championship complicated after suffering an accident in the Stage 14 of the Finland Rally, leaving Sebastien Ogier in the lead with a 22.7-second advantage.
The Welsh driver was reducing his disadvantage to Ogier, which was 16.3 seconds, just before the last stage of the morning. However, an error in a corner caused his Toyota GR Yaris to roll over.
Although he managed to get the vehicle upright again, his re-entry onto the track caused him to fall into a ditch. Several spectators, including his father Gwyndaf, ran to help him and managed to get the car out of the mud, but Evans lost 1 minute and 49 seconds in the incident.
After that, Evans took his vehicle to the service area, where the Toyota team will work quickly to repair the damage before the afternoon tests. ‘At the end of the stage there was a block to prevent the car from leaving the route. I think I was too optimistic and, with such a deep ditch, I made the car roll over and then we got stuck,’ commented Evans.
Furthermore, his incident caused him to drop to fifth place overall, two minutes from the leader, while Ogier maintained a comfortable lead over Sami Pajari, who holds second place.
Ogier, for his part, expressed satisfaction with his morning performance: ‘We kept the plan of not taking unnecessary risks, but we went fast. We knew Elfyn and Sami were chasing us and after our victory in the stage, Elfyn made a mistake that gave us more margin.’
The M-Sport driver, Martins Sesks, also suffered an incident in the same stage, losing control of his Ford Puma after rolling into the trees. Fortunately, both he and his co-driver, Renars Francis, are fine. However, according to team director Rich Millener, the accident could mean the end of the competition for them.
Meanwhile, Takamoto Katsuta has moved up to seventh position after starting the day in eighth, and Thierry Neuville is trying to make up time after suffering an accident on Friday that cost him more than two minutes.
The Finland Rally continues with exciting stages, and fans are eager to see if Evans can recover from the incident during the second half of the competition.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
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