By Gareth James
Elfyn Evans agonisingly saw victory prized away from him by just 0.6 seconds on the final stage of Rally Croatia.
The Dolgellau-born ace had to settle for second as Toyota Gazoo Racing team-mate Sebastien Ogier snatched the win in thrilling fashion.
Evans had gone into the last stage – which also carried extra points at the Power Stage – leading the Frenchman by 3.9 secs after a storming run on Sunday morning.
But on the final corner Evans lost vital time and saw defending champ Ogier take the victory which also gave him the lead in the WRC drivers’ standings.
“That last corner! I just got onto the loose and completely missed the next corner,” said Evans. “It wasn’t all lost there, but I’d say a second was gone.
https://twitter.com/TGR_WRC/status/1386294029420306434
“That’s a shame, but it was a big fight all weekend and hats off to Seb for the last stage.”
Ogier, who has been involved in drama on the road section to the opening stage when his Yaris car was damaged in a sideswipe, admitted after setting the fastest time on the final stage that he still did not expect to win.
But Evans’ last corner hiccup gave him a second victory of the opening three rounds, adding to his Monte Carlo triumph where he also beat his Welsh team-mate.
Evans has moved up one place to third in the standings on 31 points, 10 points behind Ogier and just two adrift of Belgium’s Thierry Neuville who finished third in Croatia for Hyundai.
Had Evans held on for the victory he would have also been leading the championship standings.
Evans had started the final four stages in second overall, just 6.9 secs. adrift of Ogier,
But after setting the fastest time on the first two stages – taking his SS wins over the weekend to four – he was suddenly leading by 2.8secs.
Evans extended that advantage on the penultimate stage to 3.9 secs, but it was not enough as the drama unfolded on the final corner of an event that was making its debut on the WRC calendar.
And that may have played a part in Ogier being involved in a collision on a dual carriageway section as he pulled into a lay-by.
Both Ogier and his co-driver Julien Ingrassia escaped the shunt uninjured but were forced to carry out remedial work on the car which was deemed safe to continue by FIA technical delegates.
@SebOgier crashed on road section between SS17 and SS18@croatiarally #croatiarally #wrccroatia pic.twitter.com/LYWspGPPta
— MarMal (@mmalcevic) April 25, 2021
“The engineers and the designers, they do a big effort to get the aerodynamics working in the car, so obviously that is upset,” said Toyota chief Jari-Matti Latvala.
“The aerodynamics now – how the airflow should be going – it’s not getting better. For sure, it is difficult to say how much it is affecting the speed but clearly it is not making the car better or faster.
“But I know Sebastien very well and this incident was definitely not giving you the best feeling to start the stages – but he is a professional and he has done a fantastic job in that sense [after the accident].
“Now is the time to reset and after the reset I still expect he can get the feeling and I am still confident he will be able to fight – even for the victory.”