By Paul Evans
By his own very high standards, finishing 14th on an event that he was hoping to challenge for victory on isn’t going to take pride of place on Elfyn Evans’ list of career highlights.
But that’s what happened on Rally Sweden – and on an event where the entire M-Sport/Ford team struggled, Elfyn has already assigned a frustrating winter rally to the history books.
Co-driven by Dan Barritt, the 29-year Dolgellau driver struggled for grip on the snowy stages (despite studded Michelin tyres), wasn’t confident with the car’s set-up and handling and found it difficult to even set top 10 stage times.
At the end of 19 fairly torrid stages, last year’s Wales Rally GB winner was almost five and a half minutes adrift of Thierry Neuville, the event winner.
But that was not the end of his troubles with Evans initially being classified 10th after team-mate Sebastien Ogier picked up a penalty of 4m10s meant dropped to 11th.
But then was later hit with a 4m20s penalty – for being 26 minutes late to the time control holding area – which returned Ogier to the final points position and left the Welsh ace languishing in 14th.
Evans admitted: “It’s not been the easiest of weekends. It’s probably fair to say that we were struggling for some pace through the early stages, but then when the puncture set us back we didn’t have any chance with the road position.
“It’s certainly not the weekend we wanted, so we just need to put it behind us and look forward to Mexico.”
M-Sport’s Team Principal Malcolm Wilson said: “We knew that this event would be difficult, especially if there was fresh snow on Friday, but we faced a bigger disadvantage than I think any of us had expected.
“If you look at who succeeded at Rallye Monte-Carlo and who struggled here, it’s clear that our pace this weekend was down to the conditions and little to do with the cars or the drivers.
“There’s nothing anyone could do about it, and the organisers put on another fantastic event with a great fight at the front, but we had no chance of making an impact and challenging for a strong result ourselves.
“With nothing to lose we had to try and salvage something so the team made the decision to delay Sébastien’s start for the final stage – giving him an equal chance of securing some Power Stage points.
“We can all take encouragement from his second fastest time through that stage. It gives him four additional points for his championship defence and proves that we would have had the pace were the weather not working against us.
Co-driven by Nicolas Gilsoul, Belgian ace Neuville became only the third non-Nordic driver to win Rally Sweden, taking victory in his Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC. They finished 19.8 seconds ahead of Craig Breen/Scott Martin (Citroen C3 WRC), who not only scored their career-best WRC finish, but the highest WRC finish ever achieved by a driver from the Republic of Ireland.
Neuville’s team-mates Andreas Mikkelsen/Anders Jæger completed the podium with third in their Hyundai.
Reigning World Rally Champions Sébastien Ogier/Julien Ingrassia had, like his team-mate Elfyn, an awful time in Sweden, running first on the road and acting as chief snow sweeper in their M-Sport Ford Fiesta RS WRC. They scored points for recording second fastest time on the closing Power Stage, but could only finish in 11th place.
Snow and ice will be replaced by sun and dust as the World Rally Championship moves onto the next event, the Rally Guanajuato Mexico (8-11 March).
Rally Sweden – top 10 finishers
1. Thierry Neuville / Nicolas Gilsoul (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) 2:52.13.1
2. Craig Breen / Scott Martin (Citroen C3 WRC) +19.8
3. Andreas Mikkelsen / Anders Jaeger (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +28.3
4. Esapekka Lapp / Janne Ferme (Toyota Yaris WRC) +45.8
5. Hayden Paddon / Seb Marshall (Hyundai i20 Coupe WRC) +54.4
6. Mads Østberg / Torstein Eriksen (Citroen C3 WRC) +1:15.3
7. Jari-Matti Latvala / Miikka Anttila (Toyota Yaris WRC) +2:04.9
8. Teemu Suninen / Mikko Markkula (Ford Fiesta WRC) +2:52.2
9. Ott Tänak / Martin Järveoja (Toyota Yaris WRC) +3:44.3
10. Sébastien Ogier / Julien Ingrassia (Ford Fiesta WRC) +8:45.4
DRIVERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1. Thierry Neuville – 41
2. Sébastien Ogier – 31
3. Jari-Matti Latvala – 23
4. Esapekka Lapp – 23
5. Ott Tänak – 21
6. Andreas Mikkelsen – 21
7. Craig Breen – 20
8. Kris Meeke – 17
9. Hayden Paddon – 10
10. Elfyn Evans – 8
MANUFACTURERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1. Hyundai Motorsport – 54
2. Toyota Gazoo Racing WRC – 53
3. Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team – 46
4. M-Sport Ford World Rally Team – 43