Elfyn Evans Vows Better Times To Come After Italy Disappointment

By David Williams

Elfyn Evans has vowed to make the most of more favourable rallies to come after he dropped to third in the World Rally Championship (WRC), behind Ott Tanak who won Rally Italia Sardegna by just two-tenths of a second.

Welshman Evans had been off the pace for much of the weekend in Sardinia, though improved steadily after a puncture on the first stage.

https://twitter.com/DaniSordo/status/1797231300098535834

Hyundai driver Tanak overturned a 6.2-second deficit behind Sebastien Ogier when the Frenchman punctured on the final stage.

Evans and Tanak are level on 104 points, 18 behind Championship leader Thierry Neuville who crashed out of rally contention on Saturday’s stage eight.

https://twitter.com/pawlakp/status/1795799047158083635

“It’s been a very difficult weekend for us but today was a bit better,” said Evans.

“I would say the feeling was definitely improved and I think the times and the points that we got from the day showed that.

“Still, it’s clear looking at the weekend overall that we still have a lot of work to do to improve in rallies with conditions like this one.

“The good news is that the characteristics now change to something quite different for the next three rallies.

“We know the car can be strong on fast rallies like those and it will be important to prepare as best we can and try to find confidence early.”

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Evans reduced his gap to the championship leader to 18 points after finishing fourth overall with co-driver Scott Martin.

Following a challenging start on Friday, Evans remained consistent to climb up into the top four by the end of Saturday and carried improved pace into the final day to take third in both the Super Sunday classification and the Power Stage, netting 18 points in total.

https://twitter.com/Rally_d_Italia/status/1796956341753229669

PROVISIONAL FINAL CLASSIFIACTION, RALLY ITALIA SARDEGNA

1 Ott Tänak/Martin Järveoja (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) 3h06m05.6s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +0.2s
3 Dani Sordo/Cándido Carrera (Hyundai i20 N Rally1 HYBRID) +2m25.8s
4 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +2m37.8s
5 Grégoire Munster/Louis Louka (Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) +6m42.9s
6 Sami Pajari/Enni Mälkönen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +7m13.4s
7 Yohan Rossel/Benjamin Boulloud (Citroën C3 Rally2) +7m45.7s
8 Jan Solans/Rodrigo Sanjuán (Toyota GR Yaris Rally2) +7m52.7s
9 Martin Prokop/Michal Ernst (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +10m05.4s
10 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Škoda Fabia RS Rally2) +10m09.3s
35 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnston (Toyota GR YARIS Rally1 HYBRID) +41m28.1s
(Results as of 16:00 on Sunday, for the latest results please visit www.wrc.com)

2024 FIA World Rally Championship for drivers after round 6:

1 Thierry Neuville 122 points
2 Ott Tänak 104
3 Elfyn Evans 104
4 Sébastien Ogier 92
5 Adrien Fourmaux 74
6 Takamoto Katsuta 52
7 Kalle Rovanperä 36
8 Dani Sordo 27
9 Esapekka Lappi 23
10 Grégoire Munster 16

2024 FIA World Rally Championship for manufacturers after round 6:

1 Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team 269 points
2 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing World Rally Team 256
3 M-Sport Ford World Rally Team 131

What’s next?

Rally Poland (June 27-30) returns to the WRC for the first time since 2017, offering fast stages on soft and sandy roads around Mikołajki in the Masurian lake district in the north-east of the country.