Having wrapped up the MSA British Rally Championship with one event still to run, Elfyn Evans switches his focus back to his WRC2 campaign where he currently leads the championship, despite a mixed season of results.
After being dropped from the top level M-Sport drive over winter, Evans stated his intentions strongly taking two wins in the opening two rounds of the championship. Unfortunately for the Welshman bad luck struck and despite stage-winning pace, an electrical problem put him out of the running in Argentina. Portugal saw him roll out of action while power-steering failures in Poland and Finland let his championship rivals at Skoda – Teemu Suninen and Esapekka Lappi gain ground on him.
Despite the bad run of form, Evans still remains at the top of the WRC2 standings on 95 points, just two points ahead of Suninen (who has run one less event that Evans).
Evans showed strong form in 2015 while taking on the Tour de Corse – Rallye de France in the WRC machinery for M-Sport, leading the rally at one point, that pace is something he is looking to emulate in the WRC2 class.
“The target will be to gain maximum points. If everything works in our favour, I’m confident that we can achieve that,” he told WRC.com.
“I think we’ve proven that we had the speed to challenge at every event this year, but luck has not always been on our side. If we can finish the season with a maximum points score, the ball will be in everyone else’s court and it’s up to them to catch us. We’ll do our best, and then it will just be a case of wait and see,” he added.
The decision to put Evans in the upgraded Ford Fiesta R5 Evo rather than WRC machinery has paid off for M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson, who said he was impressived the Evans and co-driver Craig Parry’s efforts.
“Their performance at the start of the year was very impressive. We have a small team working alongside Elfyn and Craig, and they have to compete without the luxury of a large test programme. Regardless, they have taken everything in their stride and truly taken the fight to their WRC 2 rivals.” he added.
