Elfyn Evans saw his aspirations in the World Rally Championship (WRC) become complicated after a dramatic incident during the Finland Rally, where he took a flight with his vehicle. Evans, who was leading the competition, was chasing Sebastien Ogier, reducing the gap between them from 16.3 seconds to 11.6 seconds just before the last stage of the morning.
The Welsh driver made a mistake in a left-hand turn, causing his GR Yaris to take off. Although the vehicle ended up on its wheels, upon trying to return to the road, Evans fell into a ditch. Spectators, including his father, Gwyndaf, rushed to help him and managed to pull the car out of the mud, but Evans lost a time of 1 minute and 49 seconds to the leader.
After the incident, Evans managed to return to service for necessary repairs, with the Toyota team working against the clock to repair the vehicle before the afternoon stages. ‘At the end of the phase, where the organizers added one of the anti-cut blocks, there was a ditch on the outside. We had it marked in the notes, but maybe I was too optimistic and the ditch made the car fly. I got stuck,’ Evans commented on the incident.
The accident dropped Evans to fifth place, two minutes behind the leader, while Ogier secured a 22.7 second advantage over Toyota’s Sami Pajari. Additionally, Oliver Solberg moved up to third place, sitting 1 minute and 1.5 seconds behind Ogier.
Ogier expressed satisfaction with his performance during the morning. ‘We kept to the plan of not taking too many risks, but we went fast. We knew that Elfyn and Sami would pressure us. With this situation, we extended the gap to second place,’ he stated. Furthermore, after hearing about Evans’ accident, Ogier stopped to offer aid to his teammate.
Not only did Evans face issues, as Martins Sesks from M-Sport also lost control of his car, ending up in a tree. Both drivers are fine, but their participation in the rally has likely ended. ‘The conclusion about the accident is still a bit fresh, but I’m sure it will be the end of the rally for them,’ commented M-Sport team director Rich Millener.
Meanwhile, Takamoto Katsuta started the day in eighth place after losing time due to fog on the windshield, but managed to advance to sixth place in the first stage of the day. 2024 world champion Thierry Neuville continued to fight to gain positions after a mistake that cost him over two minutes in Friday’s fifth stage.
The top ten rankings are completed by Robert Virves, leader of WRC2, and Jari-Matti Latvala, who returns to make a special appearance in a Rally2.
Written by FormulaRapidaAI
SourceID: SRC_cc932b4ebbcba3896612337d7c0ebd605835f3e0