Evans has struggled significantly with pace in both May’s Rally Portugal and early June’s Rally Sardinia. Fortunately for Evans, the next rounds of the WRC are on his favourite surface: fast gravel. This provides an ideal environment for a potential turnaround.
The Toyota driver has yet to win a WRC event this season. However, the year started well, with Evans finishing on the podium in Monte Carlo, Sweden, and Croatia. However, the spring races went poorly, allowing Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville to extend his lead in the championship by 18 points.
Evans has celebrated victory twice in Rally Finland, proving that fast rallies suit the Welshman well. Now, he faces three fast gravel events, starting this week in Poland, followed by Latvia and then Central Finland.
“It’s an opportunity for us to get it right,” last year’s Secto Rally Finland winner told DirtFish.
“I think we should have a good base that, in theory, the car should work from the likes of Finland and Chile last year. So we really need to try and hit the ground running when we get to the fast rallies.”, the Toyota driver continued.
In fact, Evans slightly closed the gap to Neuville in Sardinia when the Belgian went off the road on Saturday. The most concerning aspect for Evans has been his repeated complaints over the past few months about not finding a good feeling in the GR Yaris Rally1 car. Either the settings have been badly off, or the driver’s confidence has simply been lost.
Toyota team boss Jari-Matti Latvala has speculated that Evans’ lost pace might be related to the WRC standings. Knowing that this year presents a golden opportunity, Evans might be too focused on points and standings, affecting his performance.
“What I see with Elfyn is he doesn’t have that relaxed feeling for the driving at the moment. I think he has been thinking about the championship and the points too much that you lose the natural ability to drive, Latvala pondered earlier.
Evans, however, refutes his team boss’s claims to the rally website.
“That’s not the case,” he responded. “I’ve basically been struggling like hell with the car since the start of Portugal. I mean, I think we’ve made some progress to get the feeling back of old, let’s say, but yeah, at the moment it’s been difficult from that side” Evans replies.
Towards the end of Rally Sardinia, Evans’ pace improved. This gives confidence that the “old” Evans might reappear in the fast gravel rallies of the summer.
“I mean, when the feeling of it came back,” he added, “then the driving immediately improved with it. And, basically, I need to get the feeling back that I’m used to with this car and then it should be fine.”
