By Paul Evans
Elfyn Evans is in a strong fourth position after last night’s opening stage of Rally Mexico – although he was one of the last drivers to contest the signature stage through the packed streets of Guanajuato, as a purpose-built jump near the finish became damaged.
Many drivers, including Evans, suffered heart-stopping heavy landings and the stage was eventually cancelled, with drivers who didn’t tackle the stage awarded a notional time.
“It [the stage] was okay, a bit slippery into the first corner and this jump is really, really aggressive,” said Evans. “That took us by surprise, otherwise okay.”
The real action begins later today, with eight stages and 70 flat-out miles of competition near Guanajuato – including two runs over the famous El Chocolate and Ortega tests.
Co-driven by Scott Martin, Evans has already shown his pace on Mexican gravel, by setting the seventh fastest time on the shakedown stage – just 1.3 seconds behind the fastest driver, Kris Meeke (Toyota).
The M-Sport Ford World Rally Team’s Fiesta WRC star starts Rally Mexico on the back of three stage wins and a solid fifth place finish last time out in Sweden. Evans is naturally keen to build on that.
“We want to bring that momentum forward to Mexico,” said Evans. “We changed a lot on the car between Sweden last year and this year. That does not mean it will work here. The car felt good in the test, but the shakedown was a surprise. It was not as we expected and we made adjustments to the set-up. Let’s see what tomorrow brings. The guys have been working to find every little improvement and small detail. It is not easy to make big gains. The aero is a small evolution. I have not been on any high-speed sections, so improvements are not obvious yet. We have to trust the engineers and see if the improvements will come later in the year.”
Last year in Mexico, Evans was challenging for an early lead when he rolled at speed, but the lack of recent seat time in Mexico isn’t a concern. Not with having done the event four times and finished fourth twice, in 2014 and ‘15.
“Not particularly. The stages are similar throughout the years we have been coming here. We have the notes from the recce last year and this year as well, so it should not be a problem. There are quite a lot of note changes. On some sections, there are a lot of changes. There was a massive amount of rain on some of Saturday’s stages and we could see some rough sections.”
Rally Mexico runs until Sunday afternoon, with 21 stages totalling 188 miles. Look out for end of day updates here on Dai-Sport!