The Toyota driver has been in brilliant form this season. The Welshman has stood on the podium in all four rounds so far, including two impressive victories.
The next event will be held next week in Portugal. Evans, who leads the standings by 43 points, isn’t heading into the upcoming gravel rallies with full confidence, as he expects a serious challenge.
“I think it was definitely the case last year, and maybe even the year before, that these were the most challenging events on my side, and obviously they now arrive all three in a row. I’m leading the championship heading into this sequence of events, and so we know that comes with the privilege of running first on the road,” Evans said, referring to the dreaded role of road sweeper on gravel rallies’ opening days.
“It’s how well you cope with that which will shape how the championship looks on the other side of it. We’re definitely keen to try and overcome the challenges of the last few years at those events and have a better run. We know it’s going to be difficult to score good results at all of them, realistically. But we definitely want to be in a stronger position and maybe be able to capitalise on a good run through the Sundays to try and boost our points gain from these events.”
There have been significant changes to Rally1 cars since last season. The hybrid units are now gone, and Hankook has taken over as the tyre supplier – which has posed challenges, for example, to Evans’s teammate Kalle Rovanperä.
For Evans, however, the changes seem to have suited him well – at least judging by the results. His hope is to make it through the Portuguese round and the other demanding gravel rallies with a solid performance.
But luck hasn’t been on his side when it comes to preparation.
“There were definitely some nice developments towards the end of last year. Unfortunately, this year we’ve done two tests in Portugal on gravel, and they’ve both been very wet,” Evans said.
“So preparing for dry, loose gravel has been very limited, which is, I guess, not ideal. But that’s the way it goes. Sometimes in rallying, we have to learn to adapt.”
Still, Evans is confident that Toyota will get the car set up well for next week’s rally in northern Portugal.
“I’m sure the team will do a great job to prepare with the other drivers in hopefully dry conditions, and we can take something from that.”
Watch the video below of Evans’ test ahead of Rally Portugal:
