Elfyn Evans\u2019 World Rally Championship hopes suffered a blow after rolling out of a victory fight with Sebastien Ogier at Rally Finland.<\/p>\n
The championship leader had been chasing down rally leader\u00a0Ogier, reducing the gap from 16.3s to 11.6s heading into the final stage of the morning loop (SS14 Leustu) when drama struck. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Evans misjudged a left\u00a0hander towards the end of the stage which pitched his GR Yaris into a roll. The car landed on its wheels but as Evans attempted to rejoin the road he ran into a ditch. Dozens of spectators, including Evans’ father Gwyndaf, came rushing to his aid and eventually pushed the car out of the mud, but 1m49.0s was dropped to the leaders.<\/p>\n
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Evans managed to drive the damaged car back to service where Toyota will now race to repair the car ahead of the afternoon stages.<\/p>\n
\u201cNear the end of the stage, where the\u00a0organisers added one of these anti-cut blocks, on the side there was a ditch on the outside. We had it marked in the notes but I think I was too optimistic and with such a deep ditch it brought the car into a roll and then we got stuck,\u201d said Evans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t thought that far [about the championship] the only focus is to try and see if we can carry on after service. It is less damage to the car than I expected having sat inside it. Let\u2019s wait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evans\u2019 roll dropped the Welshman to fifth overall, two minutes from the lead, while handing\u00a0Ogier a 22.7s lead over Toyota\u2019s Sami Pajari. Oliver Solberg has now climbed to third, 1m01.5s.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It has been a good morning and I\u2019m really happy with the loop,\u201d\u00a0Ogier told Motorsport.com. \u201cWe stayed on our plan of not going for the full risk but still of course we were driving fast. We knew that Elfyn and Sami would keep pushing, they were catching us slightly and then on the last one, we had a stage win and Elfyn made a mistake which has given us more room over second now. We can be satisfied with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
After hearing about Evans’ roll,\u00a0Ogier stopped to see if he could help his team-mate and rival with any repairs that were required.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I could have helped I would do as we are team-mates and we always do that. We have a great relationship together and of course we fight when we put the helmet on, but after that we are there for our team and each other,\u201d added\u00a0Ogier. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Evans wasn\u2019t the only driver to roll in stage 14, as M-Sport\u2019s Martins\u00a0Sesks, having been sitting in fifth, lost control of his Ford Puma which barrel rolled into the trees. Sesks and co-driver Renars Francis were OK but the crash is likely to be the end of their rally.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they are fine but the car is not so fine, M-Sport Ford team principal Rich\u00a0Millener told Motorsport.com. \u201cThe conclusion is still a bit raw as to what happened but ultimately he was in a fight with Adrien Fourmaux for position and you have to push. It was a good experience for Martins to be in that fight and he will be disappointed and angry he has made a mistake.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can almost guarantee that will be the end of the rally for him as there is no real advantage to fix the damage for two stages tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sesks\u2019 exit handed fourth to Hyundai\u2019s\u00a0Fourrmaux, who had been steadily closing in on the M-Sport driver. Fourmaux reached service with some back pain caused by the severe jump landings. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Toyota\u2019s\u00a0Takamoto Katsuta started the day in eighth after a misted up windscreen cost the Japanese two minutes in the heavy rain yesterday. Starting third on the road behind Thierry Neuville and the returning Jon Armstrong, Katsuta climbed into seventh ahead of M-Sport\u2019s Josh McErlean in the first stage of the day, before heading to service in sixth. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hyundai’s\u00a0Neuville held eighth as the 2024 world champion set his sights on climbing the leaderboard after a mistake in Friday\u2019s stage five that damaged the front left and cost more than two minutes. The Belgian managed to reduce the margin to seventh-placed McErlean to 9.3s.<\/p>\n
The top 10 was rounded out by WRC2 leader Robert\u00a0Virves and Jari-Matti Latvala, the latter making a one-off return in a Rally2 car.<\/p>\n
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