Evans: Two-minute lead no guarantee of victory in toughest modern Safari Rally

Elfyn Evans says an nearly two-minute lead isn’t any assure of victory after wild situations have rendered this 12 months’s Safari Rally the hardest because the occasion rejoined the World Rally Championship.

The WRC factors chief survived extremely difficult situations to go into Sunday’s ultimate 5 phases with a 1m57.4s lead over Hyundai’s Ott Tanak after Kalle Rovanpera’s victory bid suffered a setback.

Evans is the one Rally1 driver to not undergo a significant challenge after 16 phases as a combination of brutal roads and chaotic moist climate wreaked havoc upon his rivals. That being stated, the Welshman did spin in stage 14 and ran out of windscreen washer fluid, which hampered his visibility on Saturday afternoon.

“Now we have had a number of dramas and it has undoubtedly been troublesome on the market,” stated Evans. “It has undoubtedly been a correct Safari to this point. A two-minute lead, usually you’ll say that will assure a win, however probably not right here.

“I’ll attempt to drive nicely and see after a number of phases if [Super Sunday] factors could be potential and we’ll proceed to go for them, however I’m not going for an all-out banzai assault tomorrow.”

Evans’ lead stood at 7.7s over Rovanpera initially of Saturday, however a pair of punctures dented the Finn’s bid for a third Safari Rally win.

Rovanpera then struck a rock within the moist stage 14, which required an emergency makeshift restore utilizing ratchet straps to allow the two-time world champion to limp again to service.

“It was not simple and on this automobile we had by no means damaged this half, so it appeared we didn’t have so many choices to work with,” stated Rovanpera.

“However we discovered one thing small to place there so at the very least we might begin the stage and get again right here. We undoubtedly want some good factors from tomorrow now.”

Toyota suffered one other blow to its Safari bid when Takamoto Katsuta suffered his sixth puncture of the occasion so far. Regardless of battling meals poisoning, the Japanese delivered a shocking stage-winning time in waterlogged situations on stage 14 that hauled himself into podium competition.

Katsuta would have moved into third had he prevented a puncture on the day’s ultimate stage, however as a substitute needed to accept fourth, 5m06.6s adrift of Evans.

Hyundai enjoys podium turnaround as Safari wreaks havoc

Hyundai had been going through the opportunity of dropping grip of the rostrum positions altogether with the i20 Ns struggling within the treacherous moist situations amid Katsuta’s cost as much as shut in on third-placed Tanak.

Tanak and an under-the-weather Thierry Neuville each endured their very own points throughout Saturday afternoon, however finally capitalised on the issues for Rovanpera and Katsuta to take a seat second and third respectively.

Tanak was unable to copy Friday’s rally-leading tempo, whereas a puncture in stage 11 proved expensive. He then fell into the clutches of Katsuta as a result of a misting windscreen on stage 14 that severely restricted his visibility in among the hardest WRC situations in current reminiscence.

Thierry Neuville, Martijn Wydaeghe, Hyundai World Rally Staff Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photograph by: Fabien Dufour / Hyundai Motorsport

Staff-mate Neuville, affected by sickness that robbed him of priceless sleep on Friday night time, described ending the day in third as a reward given the circumstances.

“It’s laborious to explain how robust it has been on the market for a number of causes, to begin with I wasn’t feeling nicely and I had a really unhealthy night time,” stated Neuville, who will take a 33.2s margin over Katsuta into Sunday’s ultimate 5 phases.

“I actually struggled to maintain my focus and do the job, however we stored combating and we received rewarded.

“They had been unimaginable situations this afternoon and I’ve by no means seen something like that in my whole profession, and to get via and be rewarded with a 3rd place in a single day is nice.

“Now we have had some tough Safaris however that is undoubtedly the roughest we’ve got had to this point, and it’s not over.”

In the meantime, M-Sport-Ford drivers Gregoire Munster and Josh McErlean managed to select their method via the extremely troublesome situations to assert a 1-2 on the timing screens in stage 15.

The pair had been lucky to expertise marginally the very best of the horrible situations as a result of their street place however their efforts had been commendable, although Munster joked {that a} “jet ski” would have been higher to navigate via the moist sections.

Munster ended the day sitting in seventh, 11m02s adrift of the lead whereas McErlean, who misplaced half an hour to a steering arm restore within the morning loop, sat in thirteenth, behind M-Sport privateer Jourdan Serderidis in tenth place.

Gus Greensmith managed to carry off Jan Solans to guide the WRC2 class in eighth total.  

Rally Safari leaderboard after SS16: