Q&A:
Elfyn
Evans

How are you feeling after winning in the WRC Academy for the first time? “Really good. We had a good run through the first one this morning, the second stage was more rough than we expected, very rough in fact but Alastair [Fisher] and Pontus [Tidemand] hit trouble so we knew for the last two we had to look after the car and tyres, not get any punctures and bring it home. We didn’t have a single puncture all rally and the car worked very well.”

There were a few issues with the car earlier in the event though? “We had a sump guard problem on the first stage on Thursday night and we came back and the guys fixed that. On the way back from Friday’s last stage the car was leaking a bit of fuel onto the exhaust so that was a bit of a scare on the 100-kilometre road section. It was like sitting on a bomb a little bit but we were lucky to get the car back and the guys did a great job to get the car back out.”

With seven stage wins to your credit were you pushing throughout? “We knew from Portugal we’d have to go quite hard here but obviously you have to have a little respect. A lot of places are quite rough and you have to respect those places. Where we could we tried to find a good rhythm without pushing too silly hard so it went well.”

How important will those stage wins be for your title ambitions? “It’s very important. Obviously every fastest stage time counts as a point so it’s important to get as many as possible. At the same time you’ve got to look at the overall picture of the rally as well which is why we didn’t push on the last two.”

You had a new co-driver in Phil Pugh for this event. Why the change and what benefits did Phil bring? “It’s a job that needs a lot of time. Phil’s experience means he can just dedicate his time so easily. He knows what’s required, he’s done it for years and he’s world class basically. You’ve seen what he’s done with Guy Wilks in a World Rally Car, he’s living locally to me and it was just a perfect thing. We’re committed together for the rest of the season. It worked fantastically well and we’re lucky to have him.”