Evans managed to score what could be described as a defensive success at the Acropolis Rally in Greece. He finished fourth and walked away with a decent haul of 17 points.
Evans continues to lead the championship, but rally winner Ott Tänak of Hyundai closed the gap significantly and is now just 12 points behind the Welshman. Toyota’s Sébastien Ogier (141 points) also sits between them, though the Frenchman is not contesting the full season.
Evans was reasonably satisfied with his performance.
“The first day we were struggling quite a lot with our road position and speed. So we realised quite quickly that, you know, we weren’t going to really have a good result through pure speed,” Evans explained.
“We needed to be a bit clever and try to stay out of trouble, which we obviously managed to do. We still miss a bit of pace in these types of conditions, but nonetheless, to come away with reasonable points from a tough weekend is still okay,” he said.
Evans had a strong start to the season and looked to be pulling away in the title race, but his lead has gradually diminished as the season has progressed. However, this didn’t come as a surprise to the Toyota driver.
“It was always going to be the case that my lead would reduce over these rallies. It was almost a given,” Evans admitted.
“So I’m happy that we were able to at least score some points at all the events, make no mistakes, and get through the worst part of it, let’s say,” he reflected.
Next, the WRC heads into two extremely fast gravel rallies, with Rally Estonia taking place in mid-July, followed by Rally Finland in early August.
“But it’s still the case that Estonia and Finland can be difficult—especially if it’s dry—but at least the effect should be a bit less,” Evans noted.
