M-Sport World Rally Team’s Elfyn Evans continued to impress as Rally Italia Sardegna entered its penultimate phase today. On course for another encouraging result, the Welshman currently holds fifth place overall.
There may have only been four stages to contend with, but with two passes of the year’s longest speed test, there remained much to be won and lost. Rising to the challenge, Evans and co-driver Daniel Barritt looked at one behind the wheel of their Ford Fiesta RS WRC. When others became victims of the tricky conditions, the Brits kept their Fiesta firmly planted to the gravel stages whilst setting a string of positive times.
Having made a huge leap forward in terms of speed, the Welshman maintained the same high level of performance throughout the day’s 156.80 kilometres. Despite admitting to what was perhaps an overly cautious approach to the unknowns of the opening loop, the M-Sport man made significant strides with regards his development as a world class driver.
As one of the championship’s most conscientious and articulate new talents, Evans combined a marked improvement in pace with an analytical approach to each new kilometre. Continuously assessing areas for improvement, the Welshman continues to build upon his seconds per kilometre target.
With 53.86 kilometres left to run on tomorrow’s final day, the ‘rookie’ is on course to add yet another significant result to what is becoming a highly impressive debut.
Elfyn Evans (5th) said:
“It’s been an OK day. We had a reasonable run through the first stage of the loop [SS12], but there was quite a bit of tyre wear so we were a little bit concerned as to how that would play out for the long one [SS13]. Then we heard that Robert [Kubica] had had an incident so it was just a case of driving to Martin’s [Prokop] splits.
“We took it really carefully and, to be honest, the splits were quite positive. As we were driving with really low risk, we decided to keep it at that. It was a tough stage and it was important that we made it through.
“We’ve learnt a lot this weekend. I was happy with the pace yesterday and although the times haven’t been quite as impressive today, they weren’t so bad. I don’t think we’ve done a bad job. We maintained our position and avoided mistakes so in that respect it was good.”
Team Principal, Malcolm Wilson OBE, said:
“I’m very pleased with the way Elfyn [Evans] has evolved throughout this event. He showed some really strong pace yesterday, but he also knows that it is important for him to finish and he kept that in mind today.
“I think it’s fair to say that this is the best performance we have seen from him and Dan [Barritt, co-driver]. There is still some work to do on the consistency, but that is something that will come with time and experience and it has still been a very impressive performance.”