By Paul Evans
Elfyn Evans is in a fantastic fight to win the Tour of Corsica, and has two stages on Sunday to overhaul Thierry Neuville, who stole the lead away from the Dolgellau ace on Saturday’s final stage.
The two drivers are separated by just 4.5 seconds at the end of day two, after the Belgian stormed through SS12 to take 16 seconds off Evans and obliterate his 11.5 second advantage.
But having led for seven out of the 12 stages, Evans knows that whilst he has a mighty fight on his hands tomorrow, his first World Rally Championship win since the 2017 Wales Rally GB is tantalisingly close.
Evans started today’s longest leg of the event with a 4.5 second lead – although ahead of him lay over half of the event’s competitive distance, laid out in two loops of three long stages in the north of the island. The day included the monstrous Castagniccia stage which, at almost 30 miles, is not only the longest stage of the event, but one of the longest in the entire WRC. And it had to be tackled twice during the day – which was to work against Evans and co-driver Scott Martin in their M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC.
Second placed Ott Tänak was on an early morning charge, reducing Evans’ lead to 3.9 and then 0.2 seconds on the day’s opening two stages, before overtaking and establishing a 2.3 second lead with three out of three stage wins.
Evans responded on the first afternoon stage, reducing Tänak’s lead to 1.6 seconds, before the Estonian driver’s hopes of victory deflated with a puncture on SS11. Over two minutes were lost as he stopped his Toyota Yaris WRC to replace the wheel, dropping him to seventh.
“That’s unlucky for him,” said Evans on hearing of Tänak’s problem. “Our pace wasn’t that great [in that stage] by the look of it anyway. It felt okay, I pushed quite hard but didn’t find the rhythm in places. It’s a shame for Ott. We still have to fight, there’s not such a gap behind. Let’s see.”
It gave Evans a 11.5 seconds lead, ahead of Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) – which, whilst a small margin, was by far the biggest lead anyone had enjoyed so far in the event.
Evans knew that Neuville would try and make a big push on the final stage of the day, but he was surprised to have lost so much time, a massive 16 seconds, and the lead in the final stage of the day.
In the two runs over the longest Castagniccia stage, Evans had lost the lead both times!
“It had been a good day for us and the pace was really strong, so it was a real shame about that last stage,” said Evans. “Honestly it was a bit of a shock to lose that much. We didn’t feel that we had a bad stage – maybe not a perfect stage – but to lose that much time was disappointing.
“But we have to forget about it now. Four and a half seconds isn’t too much and we can fight for that tomorrow. We know that we have the pace to win this rally, and that’s what we’ll be focused on. We came here to challenge for the win, and that’s what we plan to do.”
Such has been the pace of the top two that Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Citroen C3 WRC) are a further 40 seconds behind in third.
Sunday’s final leg contains just two stages located in the Balagne region, the 19.8 mile Eaux de Zilia test and the final 12.1 mile Calvi stage, before the finish in Calvi at 15.00 local time.
Tour of Corsica – top 8 after SS12
1. Thierry Neuville / Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) 2:56:50.0
2. Elfyn Evans / Scott Martin (Ford Fiesta WRC) +4.5
3. Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia (Citroen C3 WRC) +44.8
4. Dani Sordo / Carlos del Barrio (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +49.9
5. Teemu Suninen / Marko Salminen (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1:32.1
6. Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) +1:54.5
7. Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferme (Citroen C3 WRC) +1:59.3
8. Sébastien Loeb / Daniel Elena (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +3:21.4