Evans set the fastest time on one stage during the day, but his consistent performance was key. This consistency earned him the lead, with Hyundai’s Estonian driver Ott Tänak close behind. The gaps remain tight, as the top five drivers are within just 13.7 seconds of each other.
“I struggle just to get confidence in the rear. And at the end, I just had to go for it a bit, but the feeling was a bit strange in the first two and I struggled to find the confidence. We change a couple of clicks here or there and push a bit more,” Evans said.
“It’s been a really clean day for us. The stages were nice to drive but the conditions were also quite tricky: the grip level was changing quite a lot and so was the width of the road, so it was not easy to have a perfect flow. I tried to stay calm and not rush too much and I think we managed to do a really solid job with consistent speed.”
On Saturday, the nature of the special stages changes slightly. However, on today’s stages, tyre wear is likely to be a greater factor.
“Stages are nice, but can you drive them flat out all day? I don’t think so. It’s always difficult because you never know how slow it’s slow enough. Sometimes you can go so slow that you are 30s behind. So it’s tricky,” Evans told.
“I feel like I know many places where I can improve but the plan is just to carry on the same way tomorrow.”
On Saturday in Chile, a total of six special stages will be driven.
