Elfyn Evans

Born into Welsh rally royalty (his father Gwyndaf is a former British champion), Evans started his rallying career in 2007 when he came third in the Fiesta Sporting Trophy. The following year he won the series outright, in both the UK and Ireland.

He won the UK SportTrophy series again in 2010, as well as the Junior British Rally title and the Pirelli Star Driver shoot-out, the prize for which was a funded Group N Subaru Impreza drive in the 2011 British Championship. Evans completed the season with two wins and second place in the championship.

His big break on the international stage came in 2012, when he won the FIA’s young driver category, the WRC Academy Cup. His prize was a funded WRC2 programme in 2013, plus a job at M-Sport helping to test and develop its R5 and WRC Fiestas.

Evans took one win and two second places in his WRC2 campaign, but it was his surprise debut in a World Rally Car at Rally Italia Sardegna that really got him noticed. Asked to stand in for an absent Nasser Al-Attiyah with just two days notice, and with a new co-driver, Evans finished a remarkable sixth overall.

That performance convinced M-Sport to offer him a full season at the sport’s highest level in 2014, as team-mate to Mikko Hirvonen. Despite an emphasis on learning, Evans impressed with six top-six finishes and career-best fourth places in Mexico and Germany.

He raised the bar with second at the Tour de Corse in 2015 but was dropped from M-Sport’s top-level line-up for 2016. Instead, he campaigned a Fiesta R5 in WRC2 and led the championship for virtually the entire season before eventually taking third.

As the reigning British champion, he returned to the main WRC field in a DMACK World Rally Team Fiesta WRC in 2017 and impressed hugely in claiming his first win on home ground in Britain.

Evans regained his place in the M-Sport Ford squad in 2018 and finished fifth in the 2019 standings, despite missing two rounds through injury.

Evans and co-driver Scott Martin linked up with former team-mate Sébastien Ogier in an all-new line-up at Toyota Gazoo Racing in 2020. Victories in Sweden and Turkey made them title favourites, but a heart-breaking crash at the final round in Monza meant they had to settle for second.

The 2021 season followed a similar script and, despite taking the fight to the final round, the Welshman missed out on the title by 23 points, finishing second to Ogier.

Evans was absent from the top spot throughout 2022 as he tried to get to grips with Toyota’s new GR Yaris Rally1 car. He did manage to net four podiums, however, before going on to deliver three victories over the course of the 2023 season. 

With two-time world champion Kalle Rovanperä stepping back to a part-time campaign for 2024, Evans - now in his fifth season at Toyota Gazoo Racing - is the Japanese marque's lead driver.