By Paul Evans
You’d think that all the bad luck that Elfyn Evans has suffered in this year’s FIA World Rally Championship must be coming to an end soon, but today’s run in Rally Turkey proves that it hasn’t yet finished dishing out the punishment.
On what should have been a good opening day for him – favourable road position, new stages for everyone, challenging conditions he loves – a string of misfortune eventually saw him and co-driver Dan Barritt park their M-Sport Ford Fiesta WRC two stages from the end of the day.
Having successfully completed the opening spectator stage last night, stopping the clocks in 10th place, just 4.3 seconds off the lead, Rally Turkey started to unravel on the first stage this morning, when the intercom packed in and Evans had to drive blind.
Worst was yet to come, and on the very next speed test (SS3) he suffered an issue with the rear differential.
Determined to the last, Evans made it through the next stage (SS4) and back to service for a full repair, but the damage had already been done as the Dolgellau driver fell almost three minutes adrift of the lead.
Returning for the afternoon loop, Evans set about proving his speed and the split times showed that he was on course to deliver a one-two-three for the M-Sport Fiesta squad through the second pass of Çetibeli (SS5) until he was slowed with a puncture.
Surely a clean stage would follow, but Evans’ relentless bad luck had other ideas. Hitting a rock in the racing line, the suspension was broken and the Welshman’s day came to an untimely end.
Having failed to finish SS6, and failed to start the day’s closing SS7, time penalties now sees Evans over 16 and a half minutes off the lead – although he will be able to restart tomorrow under Rally 2 rules.
“It was a tough day,” admitted Evans. “We had intercom issues on the first stage [SS2] and then transmission issues on the two after that [SS3 and SS4]. The afternoon loop was going pretty well and we had really good speed before picking up a slow puncture towards the end of SS5. Then in the next one there was a massive rock on the inside of the line. We missed it with the wheel, but it hit the wishbone and unfortunately that was it – just one of those things.”
World Championship leaders Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai) lead the event, and are just 0.3 seconds ahead of title rivals Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Ford).
Rally Turkey – top 10 after SS7
1. Thierry Neuville / Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) 1:52:28.2
2. Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +0.3
3. Andreas Mikkelsen / Anders Jaeger (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +2.6
4. Jari-Matti Latvala / Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +16.3
5. Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) +31.9
6. Hayden Paddon / Sebastian Marshal (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +35.1
7. Esapekka Lappi / Janne Ferm (Toyota Yaris WRC) +36.8
8. Craig Breen / Scott Martin (Citroen C3 WRC) +50.1
9. Teemu Suninen / Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +1:02.9
10. Henning Solberg / Ilka Minor (Skoda Fabia R5) +6:52.0