By Paul Evans
Elfyn Evans continued his clean and tidy run on Rally Finland today, finishing a long Leg 2 in eighth place overall.
He’s only 10.3 seconds behind team-mate Sébastien Ogier, but with the five-time World Champion again battling for the title, Evans knows that M-Sport team orders are likely to see that he stays behind his French stable-mate. Ogier is currently one place ahead in seventh, while Finland’s Teemu Suninen, driving the other works Ford Fiesta WRC, is sixth.
Estonian crew Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja continue to lead Rally Finland in their Toyota Yaris WRC.
With one day of flat-out competition remaining, Evans and co-driver Daniel Barritt look in line for a good haul of vital WRC points.
“It’s not been a bad day and all three of us have been fighting quite closely together – although for sure we’d all like to have been fighting a bit higher up the leaderboard,” said Evans.
“We lost a bit of time this afternoon as I didn’t want to take the risks. We’ve got to play the team game and whatever happens we won’t be finishing ahead of Sébastien [Ogier] so it wasn’t worth taking the risks.”
Rally Finland – top 10 after Leg 2
1. Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2:13:18.2
2. Mads Østberg / Torstein Eriksen (Citroen C3 WRC) +39.0
3. Jari-Matti Latvala / Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +44.4
4. Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +1:20.6
5. Hayden Paddon / Sebastian Marshal (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +1:29.6
6. Teemu Suninen / Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1:45.1
7. Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +2:07.6
8. Elfyn Evans / Daniel Barritt (Ford Fiesta WRC) +2:17.9
9. Craig Breen / Scott Martin (Citroen C3 WRC) +2:56.4
10. Thierry Neuville / Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +3:34.5