By Paul Evans
Elfyn Evans finished fifth on Wales Rally GB today – and had it not been for two small issues, he might well have won Britain’s round of the FIA World Rally Championship in his M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC.
A poor opening stage time at Oulton Park and a puncture and suspension damage in Penmachno forest cost Evans 55 seconds – and at the end of the four-day, 22 stage event, the Dolgellau ace was 48.6 seconds off the winner’s time.
Co-driven by Scott Martin, Evans set another cracking pace at the start of the final day of the event, with fastest time on the second stage of the day (SS19, Brenig 1) finally putting him ahead of Andreas Mikkelsen (Hyundai) and up to fifth. With the Great Orme stage cancelled (the sea was too rough for safety divers to be positioned), just the repeat of the Alwen and Brenig forest stages remained, with Evans setting fastest time on the penultimate stage (his seventh of the event) and fourth quickest on the closing Power Stage to secure fifth place. His speed over all-but two of the Wales Rally GB stages had been extraordinary, and in the end he’d closed to within 13 seconds of fourth placed Kris Meeke – having been 53 seconds behind the Toyota driver after SS3.
“There is no room for these ‘what ifs’ in rallying at this level,” said Evans. “A big shame, the pace was good all weekend which is nice, nonetheless it would have been nice to be higher up.”
It was a magnificent event for Phil Mills, who’d thought his WRC co-driving days were over, after he’d stepped in to navigate for Evans on last year’s Tour of Corsica. Another one last appearance saw the Newtown-based co-driver guide Petter Solberg to victory in the highly-competitive WRC2 category, as the 2003 world champions enjoyed a successful ‘farewell tour’ in a Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 to also finish a magnificent 10th overall.
Another outstanding drive came from Tom Cave/Dale Furniss, who finished 11th overall and top-placed Hyundai i20 R5 crew.
Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja won the event in their Toyota Yaris WRC to extend their lead in the FIA World Rally Championship – the Estonian crew edging ever closer to their first world title, thanks to also taking maximum bonus points by setting fastest time on the Power Stage. They finished 10.9 seconds ahead of second placed Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC), while Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Citroën C3 WRC) were third, a further 12.9 seconds behind.