Evans Emerges Top Strengthening His WRC Title Hopes

Elfyn Evans won his second WRC race of the season, boosting his title chances.

He emerged top after battling the toughest Safari Rally since its return.

Elfyn Evans said that his two-minute lead doesn’t guarantee victory. He believes the tough conditions made this the hardest Safari Rally since it returned to the WRC.

He is the first British driver to win the Safari Rally since Colin McRae did it in 2002.

Evans is the son of former rally driver Gwyndaf Evans and has won several WRC races.

Evans and his co-driver Scott Martin won a tough 21-stage Safari Rally, finishing 1m09.9s ahead of Hyundai’s Ott Tanak.

Thierry Neuville fought back to take third, 3m32.0s behind Evans, giving Hyundai its best-ever Safari Rally result.

During the event, WRC drivers stayed silent in interviews until the Power Stage. They were protesting FIA’s strict rules on what they can say.

The FIA runs motorsports worldwide, including F1 and WRC. They make rules to keep racing fair and safe.

Toyota has won every Safari Rally in Kenya since 2021, but Evans had a tough time in the 384 km race.

He started well but dropped to fifth before fighting back to second behind Tänak.

When Tanak’s car had issues, Evans took the lead and held on despite punctures, spins, and heavy rain.

On Sunday morning, his Toyota had a problem, but it was fixed on the road.

Evans chose not to push for extra points on Super Sunday but still scored 27, increasing his lead to 36 points over Neuville.

This is the largest margin ever held by a driver after just three rounds in the World Rally Championship.

Other Competitors’ Performance

Tanak’s driveshaft problem dropped him to third, while Rovanperä moved up to second, just 7.7 seconds behind Evans.

But Rovanpera’s rally took a turn for the worse on Saturday when he got two punctures.

One of them came from swerving off the road to avoid zebras.

Later, he hit a rock in a flooded stage, damaging his suspension and making a temporary repair with ratchet straps. He lost over six minutes but kept going.

On Sunday, an alternator failure forced him to retire, ending his chances.

His exit helped Tanak climb back to second, despite dealing with a misted-up windscreen and a puncture.

Neuville moved up to third despite early setbacks, including a driveshaft issue, time penalties, and illness.

Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux recovered to score 10 Super Sunday points after mechanical failures ended his rally early.

Toyota’s Takamoto Katsuta fought through food poisoning and six punctures.

However, the sixth puncture and a roll caused him to drop from fourth to fifth.

Sami Pajari moved up to fourth on his Safari Rally debut for Toyota.

Gregoire Munster climbed to third place before car issues dropped him to sixth, 11m35.3s behind the winner.

Josh McErlean fell from fourth to 11th after losing time fixing a broken steering arm.

Gus Greensmith finished seventh after Oliver Solberg retired when his Skoda got stuck in deep sand.