By Paul Evans
Dare we dream of Elfyn Evans winning the Monte Carlo Rally? He’s got a great chance, as he leads the opening round of the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship with just tomorrow’s final leg remaining.
But he’s in a very close three-way battle for victory, and goes to bed tonight just 4.9 seconds ahead of his Toyota team-mate and six time world champion Sébastien Ogier, while Thierry Neuville (Hyundai) is a mere 1.5 seconds further behind in third.
Such has been the pace of the top three, that the fourth-placed driver – none other than nine time world champion Sébastien Loeb (Hyundai) – is over two minutes further adrift.
Co-driven by Scott Martin, Evans has driven faultlessly so far, looking after his tyres when needs be and striking with six stunning stage wins (out of 12) to top the leaderboard on his Toyota team.
But tomorrow is a very big day, with four long stages including two runs over the famous Col de Turini – and if the hazardous twists and turns of the French Alpes-Maritimes mountain passes weren’t enough of a challenge, in the shade awaits the potential ambush of black ice and snow.
So can Evans become the first British driver to win the Monte Carlo Rally since Vic Elford way back in 1968? We’ll know by early afternoon tomorrow, when the rally reaches the finish Monaco.
“Overall it’s been a solid day and it feels good to be leading,” says Evans. “I’m pretty happy with the weekend up to this point: the car has been giving me great confidence and the team has been working very well together. It was a very difficult afternoon loop, as we opted for the slick tyres like our rivals but there were still some icy sections out there. I was a bit too careful in the first stage of the loop, and then a bit too optimistic at the end of the last one on the final icy corner and we went off, but luckily we didn’t hit anything. There’s a big fight on for tomorrow and we need to keep focused and not think about it too much.”
Positions at the end of SS12
1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota Yaris WRC) 2h28m35.1s
2 Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia (Toyota Yaris WRC) +4.9s
3 Thierry Neuville/Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +6.4s
4 Sébastien Loeb/Daniel Elena (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +2m24.3s
5 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Ford Fiesta WRC) +2m38.4s
6 Kalle Rovanperä/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota Yaris WRC) +3m27.3s
7 Takamoto Katsuta/Daniel Barritt (Toyota Yaris WRC) +10m31.1s
8 Eric Camilli/François-Xavier Buresi (Citroën C3 R5) +11m15.2s
9 Mads Østberg/Torstein Eriksen (Citroën C3 R5) +12m13.7s
10 Nicolas Ciamin/Yannick Roche (Citroën C3 R5) +12m39.5s