Elfyn Evans Vows To Keep Pushing Amid Fierce Battle For Victory In Croatia

By Gareth James

Elfyn Evans is in the thick of a three-way battle for victory at the Croatia Rally.

The 32-year-old from Dolgellau is third after the opening day but just eight seconds separates him from leader Thierry Neuville of Belgium.

Evans was second for much of the day in the inaugural running of the event on the WRC calendar after clocking the fastest time on the third of the eight special stages.

“It has been close all day,” said Evans. “Not the perfect afternoon for us, but it’s not been bad either.

“There are definitely some things to work on for tomorrow, so let’s see.”

It’s been close all day but we were just missing a little bit of pace this afternoon and made a couple of small errors, not perfect but not too bad either. We need to keep pushing tomorrow, the stages are maybe a little more open so let’s see @croatia_rally #EE33 #wrc @TGR_WRC pic.twitter.com/dKPo0XEpdf

— Elfyn Evans (@ElfynEvans) April 23, 2021

But defending world champ and Toyota team-mate Sebastien Ogier won the last three stages to snatch second place overall from the Welsh rally ace.

The team-mates, though, are separated by just 0.3 of a second going into the second day of the three day rally, the third round of the WRC season.

Estonia’s Ott Tanak is fourth after the opening day, but more than 23 secs off Evans in his WRC.

Evans is fourth in the standings, but level on points with third placed Ogier.

But fellow Toyota driver and championship pacesetter Kalle Rovanpera – who leads by eight points – is out of the rally after crashing his Yaris on Friday morning.