By Paul Evans
Elfyn Evans has vowed to “get back on it” when the FIA World Rally Championship returns to Europe next month, after being mysteriously off the pace on the Rally of Argentina – although the 29-year old driver from Dolgellau did finish sixth in South America and score more valuable WRC points.
After coming to within 0.7 seconds of winning the event last year, Evans might have fancied his chances of victory this time around – but despite pushing hard and not putting a foot wrong in his EcoBoost-powered M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC, the stage winning times he was aiming for eluded him.
But Evans should not feel despondent – after all, he finished just 1min 07.7secs behind team-mates and defending five time World Rally Champions Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia, who finished fourth in an identical Fiesta WRC, after almost four hours of flat-out competition.
Evans and co-driver Daniel Barritt were also the first British crew home, after a typically gruelling Argentine event – where the unforgiving terrain and changeable weather added to the challenge.
“All things considered, sixth place isn’t a bad result and it was good to get some solid points on the board,” said Evans. “But the pace just wasn’t there this weekend. It was disappointing and not what we came here to do. We need to do some analysis to try and understand why that was. The engineers will study the data, I’ll study the on-boards and hopefully we can get back on it in Portugal.”
“Elfyn secured a solid result despite it being a difficult weekend for him,” said M-Sport team boss Malcolm Wilson. “I think we were all surprised to see him struggle as much as he did – himself included. But he certainly had no issues in the fog and it was that drive on Saturday morning which enabled him to get some good points on the board.”
The event was won by Estonian crew Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja in a Toyota Yaris WRC.
The WRC returns to Europe next for the Rally of Portugal (18‐20 May).
Rally of Argentina – Top 10 finishers
1. Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 3:43:28.9
2. Thierry Neuville / Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +37.7
3. Dani Sordo / Carlos del Barrio (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1:15.7
4. Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1:58.6
5. Andreas Mikkelsen / Anders Jaeger (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +2:02.6
6. Elfyn Evans / Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +3:06.3
7. Kris Meeke / Paul Nagle (Citroen DS3 WRC) +3:25.7
8. Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +4:32.6
9. Teemu Suninen / Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +5:38.6
10. Pontus Tidemand / Jonas Andersson (Skoda Fabia R5) +12:15.8