Elfyn Evans’ points advantage in the World Rally Championship was cut substantially on Rally Portugal last week, finishing sixth overall and only picking up a single bonus point for being fifth-fastest across Sunday’s six stages.
Friday in Portugal being a punishing day for Evans was inevitable: sweeping away loose gravel on a day that featured five first-pass gravel stages meant time loss was inevitable.
The concern, though, was how much better others immediately behind him on the road were able to mitigate their time losses. Saturday was Evans’ nadir in Portugal; despite a significant experience advantage, he couldn’t keep up with rookie teammate Sami Pajari, who started directly behind him on the road.
Summing up the second full day of action, Evans told DirtFish Saturday was “definitely way, way below expectation”.
The problem, Evans admitted, was that he’d found himself back in the same place as 12 months ago. On the slower gravel rallies of Portugal and Sardinia, Evans was over half a second per kilometer off the pace, even with better road position than he had in Portugal this year.
“[It is] a bit of the same story as we had on these dry gravel rallies last year,” he continued. “A bit lost with finding speed, even if it doesn’t feel that bad behind the wheel.
Sweeping Portugal's loose gravel didn't help, but there was more to Evans' struggles
“[I am] just not able to find any speed – it seems it’s not just a little bit we’re missing.
“It’s been a bit painful to watch the times roll in.”
Evans’ concern was not the finishing position itself, suggesting his expectations for a big result were “not so much in terms of overall [classification]”.
His worry was focused instead on what might have been had road sweeping not been a factor at all – suggesting that road position being equal, his rivals would have left him behind in Portugal regardless.
Other drivers' stage times made difficult reading for the world championship leader
“The disappointment comes from the amount of speed we had available,” said Evans. “We didn’t have the speed that we would have needed to fight even with the equal road position.
“I’m the one behind the wheel, so that falls on me. It seems similar to challenges to what we had at these types of rallies last year.”
The main short-term headache Evans now faces is not having an opportunity to revise his baseline gravel setup ahead of Sardinia in two weeks’ time. Though Evans suggested he’d “made some steps” on Portugal’s final day, he won’t have a pre-event test before the next WRC round, leaving him rolling straight into Italy’s WRC round with a car he knows he doesn’t feel at ease with.
“I’m going to have to try and adapt my driving a bit to suit the tire, to suit the setup and try and find a way around the feeling we have at the moment,” concluded Evans.
