Toyota driver Elfyn Evans has explained the issue which cost him second place at Rally México.
The Welshman was reluctant to talk extensively about the problem during the event – leaving rival Thierry Neuville to describe the repair work ahead of the final stage.
Evans ultimately missed out on second place, the Belgian taking it by four-tenths of a second, but he remained upbeat about his trip to North America.
“Two or three kilometers before the end of the long one (Otates),” Evans told DirtFish, “we had some sort of bad hole in a braking [zone]. We picked up some suspension arm damage and we had to brace it as best as we could [at the end of the stage].
“Obviously we couldn’t be as aggressive as we normally would be into any aggressive bumps dips or jumps, we had to take an edge off and that cost us the seconds we needed to hang on.”
Evans ran in a podium position from SS4 onwards, won one stage and was in the top-three stage times on 11 of the 23 tests.
Rally México represented his first podium of the year, but his consistency through the first three rallies means he’s 47 points closer to the championship leader than he was this time 12 months ago (12 versus 59).
“It’s definitely moving in the right direction,” said Evans. “The driving is better suited to the car and I feel the set-up has come to me also. There is still work today of course, but it’s moving in the right direction.”
