Elfyn Evans made a statement of intent as he leads the WRC2 category after Day 1 at the 2016 Tour de Corse – Rallye de France.
Evans, who is competing at his seventh and final WRC2 rally of the 2016 season, set an absolutely blistering pace on the opening stage, where the M-Sport driver was +17.9 seconds quicker than anyone else on SS1.
The Welshman used his impressive asphalt driving skills to good effect as he built a +15.7 second rally lead after Day 1 in Corsica.
Evans said “It’s been a good day, but not an easy one by all means. These stages are absolutely fantastic but they can also be quite demanding and I’m really pleased to be where we are at the moment as we didn’t have the opportunity for a pre-event test.
“The plan will be to keep extending our lead tomorrow. It’s still quite a close fight with Jan [Kopecky]. He’s been driving pretty hard and won two of the stages so we need to keep on it.”
Team Principal Malcolm Wilson OBE added “Elfyn is doing exactly what we hoped he would do. Everyone knows how well he performed at this event last year – and that is why we selected it as one of his WRC2 rounds.
“Hopefully he can carry on this pace for the rest of the event. The plan is for him to bring home maximum points, and then we’ll just have to wait and see what happens over the remainder of the season.”
