By Gareth James
Elfyn Evans says he is ready to give it his all as he bids to become Wales’ first World Rally Champion next week.
The 31-year-old from Dolgellau goes into the final round at Monza (3-6 December) leading his Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sebastien Ogier by 14 points.
And with 30 points left to play for Evans knows a good result should see him emulate Colin McRae (1995) and Richard Burns (2001) as a British world rally champ.
“Since Sardinia we’ve just been focused on preparing for the next event,” said Evans, who saw this month’s penultimate round in Belgium scrapped due to COVID-19.
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“We have always wanted to see the rallies happen and to do as many as possible. I’m going into it in a positive frame of mind.
“We know that a strong result is needed and we’re ready to go there and give it our best shot. From what we’ve seen in videos from the organiser, the Saturday stages up in the mountains look really nice.”
Monza was only added to the calendar a few weeks ago as COVID-19 forced WRC organisers to rejig the schedule and part of the rally will be held on the F1 track in the Royal park near Milan.
“There’s some real fast, flowing asphalt stages, and they could be quite challenging at this time of year,” added Evans.
“We’re probably lacking a bit of mileage under our belts with the car on this surface, but it felt good in Monte Carlo and we know that it’s strong in this area.
“The difficulty is that the circuit stages are a completely different scenario from the mountains. So we have to do our best to find a good feeling and adapt the car as we see fit.”
An end-of-year rally has been held at the iconic Monza racing circuit near Milan since 1978, but this is the first time it has been added to the WRC calendar.
The stages at Monza make use of the racetrack itself as well as its historic banked oval circuit and access roads, with some gravel sections.
For its WRC debut, the rally will also include stages on mountainous public roads north of Bergamo. The December date means the weather is likely to form part of the challenge, with rain, mud and fallen leaves – as well as cool temperatures – potentially reducing the available grip.
The rally will begin at Monza on Thursday afternoon with a single short stage, followed by a total of five tests around the circuit during Friday.
Saturday is when the crews head out for two loops of three road stages near Bergamo, which will account for nearly half of the rally’s 241.14 competitive kilometres.
There’s a return to Monza for the day’s final stage and then three more tests on Sunday to finish the rally.
Tommi Mäkinen, Toyota WRT Team Principal, said: “We all wanted to see this season end with another rally if possible – thanks to everyone who has been helping to make it happen.
“The format will be a bit different to what we are used to. I think the stages in the mountains will be particularly challenging for the drivers as they will be new for everyone.
Our drivers do not have so much experience with the car on asphalt, but we have prepared as well as we can for this rally, including our pre-event testing this week.
“It is looking good for either Elfyn or Seb to win the drivers’ championship and they will both have our full support. The manufacturers’ title is still very open as well, so we have to push for the best result at the finish.”