Thu 23 Mar 2023
It’s not often that a driver is so fulsome in their praise as Thierry Neuville was of Elfyn Evans at Guanajuato Rally México on Sunday afternoon.
The Belgian saw first-hand the damage Evans was carrying on his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 and probably thought he had second place in the bag. The Welshman had set a sensational fastest time through Otates, the longest stage of the event, but that speed had come at the cost of a bent suspension arm.
Despite carrying that issue, Evans kept the fight for second place alive until the final metre – and only lost the position to Neuville by four-tenths of a second.
Neuville said: “The arm was broken and he fixed it with some masking and some tie wraps. I found out at the end that he wasn’t so confident [in the fix]. When I saw that he was still flat out [in the stages], I said this guy really has big b*lls!
“If I’d have been in the same position…you need to play with your luck and he did it and it worked well and he took the fight to the end.”
Not only is Evans one of the world’s finest rally drivers, but once again in Guanajuato, he demonstrated he’s one of the finest mechanics as well.
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