Evans targets Ogier in WRC Rally Chile victory fight

Elfyn Evans says the fight for victory at Rally Chile is “all to play for” but it won’t be “easy” to overhaul World Rally Championship title rival and Toyota team-mate Sebastien Ogier.

Evans heads into the final day of the gravel rally 6.3s behind Ogier as the Toyota duo appear set for a head-to-head battle for victory, which could be crucial in the title race.

Searching for a third win of the season and his first since Kenya in March, Evans holds a nine-point lead over Ogier at the top of the championship standings.

Evans delivered a wet-weather masterclass to leap from fifth to the rally lead after stage nine with a 5.6s margin over Ogier. However, as conditions dried, Ogier rattled off three stage wins to move into a 6.3s lead ahead of Sunday’s final four stages.

“Obviously we are closer together tomorrow [on road position] it is all to play for. Of course it [the win] is doable but it won’t be easy,” said Evans. “It has been overall a very positive day and a very good run on Saturday morning in very difficult conditions. 

“In the afternoon we expected more tyre wear based on what we know of these stages in the past but it seems like it wasn’t as bad as we predicted and I was a bit conservative especially at the start of the loop. Seb has driven really well and it is still all close and all to play for.”

Ogier is expecting an “intense” battle with Evans across Sunday and while the main focus is to seal the victory, the eight-time world champion is desperate to secure a much stronger Super Sunday points haul than what was achieved in Paraguay.

Ogier left Paraguay with a fourth win of the season, but a late rain shower restricted the Toyota driver to just one super Sunday point.

While Ogier has his sights set on a fifth win of the year, he admits that he cannot afford to repeat the slow start made on the opening stages on Friday and Saturday. 

“I can be delighted with the afternoon but not with my whole Saturday. It has been two days in a row where we are definitely not good in the first stage and if you add the time lost, maybe 10 seconds from Friday and 15 seconds on Saturday, it is a lot of time which could make my life easier,” Ogier said.

“I think the morning was more challenging with the grip and I was a bit too cautious and these days without the split times in the car you can get it a little bit wrong. Some years ago when we had the split times I would have seen and I could react, but this morning unfortunately it was just a bad surprise at the end. 

“We can still be very satisfied to be in the lead which is the most important and I believe Sunday will still be intense. There are so many points to catch still and the fight for the win is very much on. 

“Every stage is very important so this is the day I need to be awake from the first one.”

Why Hyundai’s victory challenge faltered

Adrien Fourmaux, Alexandre Coria, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport

Hyundai heads into the final day with its victory hopes slim after holding a 1-2 at the start of Saturday’s stages. 

Adrien Fourmaux led Thierry Neuville by a second, but at the end of the day the pair found themselves 26.8s and 41.7s adrift of leader Ogier. The pair struggled for traction in both wet and dry conditions, losing significant time across both the morning and afternoon loops. 

Road position should have been in their favour across the dry stages in the afternoon, but neither Fourmaux or Neuville could match the Toyotas of Ogier and Evans.

“We were really looking for the win but the rally is not over, let’s see what happens on Sunday as we have a big fight with Seb and Elfyn so we will see,” said Fourmaux. 

“It has definitely been a frustrating day. We gave a lot but the time was not there. We were really struggling with the car and traction especially, so we need to understand and improve for sure. It is like that and we continue.

“To be fair the road cleaning effect should have been an advantage for us and we didn’t take it, so we are missing something.”

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

Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport

Neuville admitted a gamble to take three soft and three hard tyres contributed to his time loss after receiving information prior to the loop that the afternoon stages would still be damp.

“I had to gamble a little bit obviously. I lost a bit of time in the long stage on the first pass as conditions were still a bit humid and tricky. The gamble was to take one more soft tyre than Adrien to see if I could take advantage from it,” said Neuville.

“In the first stage we were a bit faster but then in the second he was a little bit faster. In the last one we would have needed four hards on the car, so I lost a bit in there.”