Rovanpera drama gives lead to Evans

Toyota’s Elfyn Evans has claimed an early lead at Rally Chile after drama struck World Rally Championship title rival and team-mate Kalle Rovanpera.

Evans produced an impressive drive from first on the road to lead Hyundai’s Ott Tanak by 0.5s as the crews headed to midday service. Adrien Fourmaux held third while a frustrated title contender Sebastien Ogier sat fourth, 13.9s adrift.

Heavy rain in the lead up to the event meant the crews faced damp conditions which appeared to reduce the road cleaning effect suffered by those at the top of the road order. The changeable weather also prompted Hankook to revise its tyre allocations following a request from teams yesterday.

The conditions played into the hands of Rovanpera and Evans as the first two to face the stages came out on top in the opening stage. Rovanpera was 3.9s faster than Evans despite being frustrated and labelling his run as “not a good one”. 

Fog patches that became thicker with every pass added a visibility challenge in stage two, but Rovanpera again appeared to master the conditions. The Finn took a second stage win by 1.1s from Tanak to move into a 5.8s lead over the Hyundai driver as Evans dropped to third. 

However, Rovanpera’s perfect start to the rally came to a halt on stage three (San Rosendo 1 – 23.32 km). A mistake from the Toyota driver resulted in his GR Yaris sliding wide before clouting a bank that knocked the left-rear tyre off the rim halfway through the test. Rovanpera opted against stopping to change the wheel which appeared to be the right decision, but he lost 1m11.9s, and dropped from the lead to ninth.

“We went a bit wide in one wrong place and had the puncture from there. The good result is again gone really quickly, so that is really disappointing,” said Rovanpera, who started the rally seven points behind points leader Evans in the title race. 

Evans took the stage win from Tanak by a second which was enough to lift the Welshman into the rally lead following Rovanpera’s tyre issue.  

“Obviously the weather has definitely helped. It [the morning] looks not too bad,” said Evans.

All three Hyundai drivers reported handling issues with their i20 Ns across the morning loop but it was Tanak who seemed to cope the best. Fourmaux was struggling particularly with the rear of his car and survived a wild slide in stage three, before ending the loop in third. Meanwhile, reigning world champion Thierry Neuville described his lack of trust in the car as a “nightmare” as the Belgian headed to service in fifth, 14.5s adrift.

The handling issues were not confined to the Hyundai camp, as Ogier also struggled with the feeling of his GR Yaris. The Rally Paraguay winner dropped 9.2s in the opening stage, before admitting he was “on the limit” in stage three, where he was 6.5s slower than team-mate Evans.      

“I’m on the limit, I cannot be faster so we need to make some changes on the car,” said Ogier.

Toyota’s Sami Pajari showed flashes of speed on his way to sixth, ahead of M-Sport-Ford’s Gregoire Munster, who lost time to a broken gear lever toward the end of the morning’s final test.

Ott Tänak, Martin Järveoja, Hyundai World Rally Team Hyundai i20 N Rally1

Photo by: Vincent Thuillier / Hyundai Motorsport

Takamoto Katsuta finished the loop in eighth having been hampered by set up issues and a lack of experience of the stages after missing last year’s trip to Chile. M-Sport’s Josh McErlean survived a high-speed spin in stage one that removed the front aero of his Ford Puma, resulting in the Irishman, making his Chile debut, falling to 17th overall. 

Oliver Solberg rounded out the top 10 with the Swede leading the WRC2 class after recovering from a stage one spin that initially dropped him to sixth. Solberg leads Emil Lindholm by 5.9s with title rivals Nikolay Gryazin, Gus Greensmith and Yohan Rossel filling the top five. Victory for Solberg in Chile will be enough to secure the title. 

A repeat of the trio of stages will conclude Friday’s action in Chile.