By Paul Evans
Elfyn Evans finished a long, hard, hot and punishing first full day of Rally Italy this evening in a very strong fifth place and a mere 20.3 seconds off the lead – despite a problematic morning and a time-consuming overshoot in the afternoon.
The 30-year old Dolgellau driver reported a strange feeling with his M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC on the morning loop of four gravel stages, which is not what you need on such a difficult, narrow and twisty loose-surface event where large car destroying rocks lie in wait by the side of the road.
Co-driven by Scott Martin, that didn’t stop Evans reach midday service just 5.9 seconds shy of the top spot, which was a truly magnificent performance.
The second pass through the same four stages was no less difficult, and as the heat and abrasive surface took its tool on the tyres, Evans was soon left with very little tread and grip. This caused an overshoot at a right hand corner, which cost him time as he reserved out of the undergrowth.
Despite this, Evans remains within shouting distance of the rally lead, which is more than can be said for a lot of his rivals. In a dramatic day, WRC leaders Sebastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia hit a rock and broke the steering on their Citroën C3 WRC, rally leaders Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila rolled their Toyota Yaris WRC and title challengers Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul damaged the front of their Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC after sliding into a bank.
“When the going was good, the speed was there, but we didn’t have the correct feeling with the car for some stages this morning and that cost us quite dearly,” admitted Evans.
“Things were looking up in the afternoon but with the cancellation of the second stage [SS7] for the guys behind, we used a lot more tyres. I then made a little mistake in the next stage [SS8], and there was a massive cleaning effect in the last one [SS9].
“We dropped down the order a lot further than we would have liked, but it’s still incredibly close and we’ll fight our way forward tomorrow.”
If today wasn’t punishing enough, tomorrow is the longest day of the event. Starting at 05.20, Saturday has almost 90 miles of competition and 300 miles of road sections, meaning that crews will be on the move for the best part of 16 hours.
Rally Italy – leading positions after SS9
1. Dani Sordo / Carlos del Barrio (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) 1:36:01.5
2. Teemu Suninen / Marko Salminen (Ford Fiesta WRC) +10.8
3. Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) +11.2
4. Andreas Mikkelsen / Anders Jaeger (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +20.2
5. Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin (Ford Fiesta WRC) +20.3
6. Kris Meeke / Sebastian Marshall (Toyota Yaris WRC) +29.5
7. Thierry Neuville / Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +57.7
8. Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferme (Citroen C3 WRC) +1:03.5