Evans finished third in the Canaries and has now reached the podium in all four events this season. He has taken victories in Sweden and Kenya and was runner-up in Monte Carlo.
Although his championship lead has now grown to 43 points, Evans was not entirely satisfied with his performance over the weekend. His teammate Kalle Rovanperä dominated the Canaries, winning everything possible, and has now emerged as Evans’s closest challenger in the standings.
“I think it was very close with Seb (Sebastien Ogier) on Sunday, so from that side it was good. I think the frustration probably came because I went searching for a lot of improvements quite early in the rally and probably lost out then. In certain moments I wasn’t so far off with the setup, but on other stages, I gave away far too much and pulled myself out of the fight by doing that,” Evans explained.
Evans could only admire Rovanperä’s performance. The Finnish star set the fastest time on 15 out of 18 stages.
“It was amazing. He was clearly untouchable this weekend. He clearly had a natural style to drive the car and tyres. I won’t say it was easy, because that’s an insult, but you know, it came far more naturally to him. And the speed he was able to show was incredible,” Evans praised.
With his superb performance, Rovanperä jumped from sixth to second in the championship standings. Despite the Finn’s slow start to the season, Evans never ruled the two-time world champion out of the title race.
“I don’t know if he ever left the game, to be honest. He’s maybe had a less-than-expected start to the season, but you can never discount him anyway.”
Even though Evans still holds a strong championship lead, he pointed out that there are still ten rounds left in the season. While a podium finish was a good result, Evans admitted that his two wins earlier this year have made him even hungrier for success.
“It’s still very early days in the championship, so it doesn’t really mean a lot. When I look at this weekend, obviously we lost like 15 points or whatever it is, so in the end, it’s hard to be happy with that – but it could be worse,” Evans said.
“When you’re on the podium, you always target the win. If you haven’t been on the podium for a while, then the podium feels good. Now it doesn’t feel amazing naturally, but it’s still okay.”
The WRC season continues in just over two weeks – moving from the Canary Islands to gravel rallies.
