Evans extends Chile lead with dominant Saturday morning

After struggling to adapt to Friday’s stages south of Concepción, Evans quickly found his rhythm on Saturday's longer, more abrasive gravel roads. He began by narrowly winning the Pelun opener, but then lost almost 10 seconds to his Toyota GAZOO Racing colleague Rovanperä on the next stage.

It’s likely that Evans was conserving his tyres for the near-30km María las Cruces test, the rally’s longest stage, where he launched a decisive attack - outpacing Rovanperä by 9.5sec to extend his rally lead to 11.3sec at the day’s midpoint.

Having started the day third, Rovanperä leapfrogged Hyundai Motorsport’s Ott Tänak to claim the runner-up spot. Tänak, who spun his i20 N Rally1 HYBRID on a right-hander in SS8,
now sits 6.1sec behind the Finn, while Sébastien Ogier’s comeback hopes were dashed when a rock damaged his Toyota’s steering and forced his retirement. Ogier had been mounting a recovery following a costly wheel change on Friday.

“Difficult conditions,” Evans confirmed. “It was damp near to the start [of SS9] and there was thick fog at the top. When it’s like that, you have no idea how you’re doing. It’s kind of as close as it gets [to being at home in Wales] here in fairness, but let’s see what we can do this afternoon.”

Championship leader Thierry Neuville vaulted from sixth to fourth in his Hyundai, overtaking rising stars Sami Pajari (Toyota) and Grégoire Munster (M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1 HYBRID) who ended the loop 14.6 and 21.1sec behind, respectively. Neuville cryptically claimed he was dealing with a “serious problem” throughout the morning but didn’t elaborate on the issue when asked.

Adrien Fourmaux trailed his team-mate Munster by just four-tenths of a second in seventh. The Frenchman is carrying a one-minute time penalty from Friday, while Esapekka Lappi’s struggle to find traction continued. The Finn also lost his Hyundai’s front bumper on the opening stage and fell to eighth.

In WRC2, Oliver Solberg bolstered his title hopes by taking the category lead on SS9. The Swede occupies ninth overall, just ahead of Yohan Rossel.