WRC
Evans rues conservative Paraguay approach as WRC lead narrows
Elfyn Evans admits he and Toyota Gazoo Racing were too conservative at ueno Rally del Paraguay after seeing his FIA World Rally Championship lead cut to 20 points with three rounds remaining.
The Welshman arrived in South America 30 points clear of Sami Pajari but left with that advantage reduced by a third after his team-mate completed a remarkable third consecutive victory.
Evans and Scott Martin finished fourth, 45.1sec behind Pajari and just 5.1sec away from the podium after Adrien Fourmaux overhauled them during a blistering second half of the rally.
“It’s obviously not been an ideal weekend,” Evans told WRC.com.
“It was a good start on Friday, but of course we didn’t play the right lottery numbers with the tyres. Obviously, that’s where the biggest difference was made, between the top three at least.
“And of course, for us, we were missing some pace to fight with Adrien. He was really strong throughout the weekend.
“So, yeah, of course I’m disappointed at the moment.”
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Evans had briefly led during Friday’s attritional opening leg before tyre damage cost him around a minute and dropped him back to third. Yet it was the effect that drama had on his approach to Saturday which he felt proved equally significant.
With punctures and delaminations having struck throughout the field, Evans elected to prioritise avoiding another setback.
“We were too conservative yesterday, really,” he admitted.
“I think after all the drama on Friday, with so many tyres failing, we obviously thought a more conservative approach was better to try and avoid getting a puncture again.
“But it looks like the conditions were not as extreme as expected on Saturday.
“So in the end, yeah, it didn’t work out too well for us.”
The opening stages on Saturday remained largely dry despite forecasts for substantial rain, and Fourmaux capitalised spectacularly.
The Hyundai driver won five stages during the day, turning a 55.0sec deficit to Evans into just 3.3sec by Saturday night before moving ahead on Sunday morning.
Evans nevertheless salvaged valuable championship points from the final day, finishing fourth on the Wolf Power Stage and fifth in the Super Sunday classification.
He now leads Pajari 216 points to 196, with Oliver Solberg third on 175. A maximum of 105 points remains available across Chile, Italy and Saudi Arabia.
